Loathe — absolutely loathe — the new iTunes 10 look? The grayscale sidebar icons? The hypocritically wonky horizontal windows controls? That ghastly new CD-less icon? *Damien Erambert has put together a handy new package which allows you to roll back iTunes 10’s more egregious changes back to a more palatable iTunes-9-style aesthetic bliss. Not that that looked all that great either, you understand.
* – Okay, this download won’t change the icon… but it’s easy enough to do.
Look, we’re four generations in. If you still crave a physical hardware keyboard on your iPhone, you’re basically barking up the wrong tree: hey, look over there, there’s RIM, a succulent hydrant for you to whiz upon. Apple’s just never going to be there for you.
That said, there’s scarcely an itch the constabulary of third-party accessory makers won’t scratch for you, given enough dosh. So here, have this Mini Key case for the iPhone 4, complete with sliding, backlit QWERTY. It adds significant bulk, no batter life, and will cost you $60 when it’s released at the end of the year. You’re welcome.
Over the weekend, AdAge managed to get their hands on some data showing how much big companies spend on Google Adwords.
Google’s none too happy about the breach, saying: “We’re now looking into the possibility that someone improperly disclosed confidential information about our clients, and [we] will take all appropriate action.”
But Apple can’t be happy about the leak either, particularly since it highlighted the fact that Apple spends a million dollars a month on Google Adwords adverising… despite the fact that they have a competing network called iAds.
Of course, a million bucks a month is just a drop in Apple’s coffers, and Apple can’t trust iAds alone to promote their own products successfully yet, given its limited rollout to iOS devices. Still, Apple ultimately intends to go head-to-head with Google Adwords for the mobile space… a blip in the headlines saying they are giving money to their rival has to be annoying, no matter how inconsequential the amount.
[via 9to5Mac]
httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1q0jVRwHy00&feature=player_embedded#!
If you’re an iPhone 3G owner wondering if iOS 4.1 is going to save your device from the slow mercury hell of a sluggish post-3.1.3 device, good news. The fine lads and lasses over at Lifehacker find the last point iteration a marked improvement upon its predecessor, and to prove it, posted this chipper, chiptune-backed side-by-side comparison.
All I can say is, “Wow.” iOS 4.0 was that slow for 3G owners? How did Apple even let that update get out the door?
Like the iPhone before it, the iPod Touch is now a a haptic handset for the teledildonically inclined.
It appears that a new hardware feature in the iPod Touch is a small, whirring engine capable of delivering a vibrating alert when a FaceTime call is incoming to your pocket.
Pretty neat. It is, of course, unknown whether or not there will be an API call allowing app store developers to trigger the vibrating functionality at will. Here’s hoping: putting aside any reference to possible pelvic-grinding perversions, rumble functionality would be a very welcome addition to the iPod Touch for gaming alone.
[via Mac Rumors
When we posted on Friday that iTunes 10 had killed off old Automator workflows, it had all the hallmarks of a bug… and as it turns out, a but it is.
As it turns out, the problem is caused because Automator detects iTunes 10 as being a lower version number than iTunes 9, because Automator apparently sorts version numbers alphabetically instead of numerically.
As it turns out, the fix isn’t entirely onerous: simply open up the info.plist inside the packages of your non-functioning workflows and manually change the version number. If you absolutely can’t live without your iTunes Automator workflows until Apple managed to issue a Software Update, here’s your stop gap solution.
Just like the crazy photo-warping effects on Apple’s own Photo Booth app that comes standard on every Mac, Real-Time Distorter can create some freaky cool images — but on an iDevice.
My nephew and I have been playing around with the app this weekend, and we’ve managed to squeeze way more fun than I’d thought from the buck I plunked down. Only four or five of the 11 effects are real winners, but that’s more than enough to play around with; not all the results end up being funny, but even the ones that lack wackiness can be interesting. Added bonus: The app can make video clips. Hopefully developer MacPhun will add Facebook and Twitter sharing in a future update.
Well, our insightful new columnist Mike Elgan certainly nailed it: mere hours after he received his new touchscreen iPod nano, Flickr user Kei Ogikubo has already added a watchstrap and turned the nano into an iWatch. Crap. I was skeptical before, but now I want one.
Got Ping? Wish you’d not bothered?
You might be over the moon about Apple’s baby social network, but on the off chance that you’re not, here’s a quick’n’simple guide to de-Pingifying your iTunes. It’s not difficult.
I suspect I’m like a lot of iPhone owners: when out and about, I tend to keep my phone in the pocket of my jeans.
But iPhones are fragile, as I discovered when I dropped my 3G on the concrete floor of a warehouse. It survived, amazingly, with just a small crack in the rear case. But the iPhone 4’s rear case is glass and I’m sure would have shattered on such an impact.
So wrapping it in some sort of case is a good idea. But I wanted one that wasn’t so bulky that it would prevent me keeping the phone in my pocket.
When Apple announced the free cases program for iPhone 4 owners, I took a careful look at the cases on offer and plumped for the Speck PixelSkin HD. I’m very glad that I did.
Well it didn’t take long after his Apple gig ended for Justin Long to switch to the Dark Side. Known for his portrayal of “Mac” along with John Hodgman as “PC” in Apple’s very popular “Get a Mac” ad campaign, Long is seen using (of all things) a Dell laptop in a promo shot for his new film Going the Distance. We presume he’s calling his old pal PC for tech support in this photo.
First a jailbroken iPhone, now using a PC. Justin, Justin, how did things get so bad so fast?
[via Macworld]
Following Wednesday’s release of iTunes 10, many users have mixed views and opinions on a lot of the changes that have come with it, particularly to its appearance. One notable change was the update of the application’s icon; after many years, the familiar music note over a CD has been updated to the simplistic, blue glowing icon above. Whilst some users have welcomed the modern design, others have criticised its appearance.
Wired reports that one user, Joshua Kopac, dislikes the icon so much, that he decided to email Steve Jobs with his opinion on the change.
Steve,
Enjoyed the presentation today. But…this new iTunes logo really sucks. You’re taking 10+ years of instant product recognition and replacing it with an unknown. Let’s both cross our fingers on this…
A short and sweet reply from Jobs’ email account simply read:
We disagree.
Sent from my iPhone
Wired claim that they’ve reviewed Kopac’s email for authenticity and believe it to be true. If it is indeed genuine, it’s nice to see that despite Apple’s disagreement with this disgruntled user, they still took the time to reply, albeit very briefly.
Other appearance changes in iTunes 10 include the 3 round buttons to close & resize the window rotate from a horizontal to a vertical orientation, and grayscale icons in the left sidebar as opposed to colored ones.
On Tuesday this week an Apple spokesperson made claims that the upcoming release of iOS 4.1 will not fix the proximity sensor problems that are being blamed on software bugs, relocation of the proximity sensor due to the addition of the front facing camera, or greasy ear canals. This problem has been widely reported and there are numerous claims from iPhone 4 users that the problem exists. I’ve encountered the problem myself on my original iPhone 4 and its replacement.
On Wednesday this week at an Apple Special Event Steve Jobs told us that the release of iOS 4.1 will resolve the proximity sensor issue, but now one iPhone 4 user, Ryan Bell, is also claiming that iOS 4.1 does not resolve the issue. He presents two YouTube videos that demonstrate why he thinks that the problem isn’t resolved.
Why does Apple dominate all aspects of the digital music market — hardware, software and content deals? For example, more than two-thirds of every media player sold in the world is an Apple product.
That’s amazing when you consider the company’s reputation as one that doesn’t listen to customers. Come to think of it, Google Search, Facebook and Twitter are all dominant products created without customer input.
Is ignoring customers Apple’s secret to success in consumer technology?
Apple’s mobile platform, iOS, is the third most-popular on the Internet, behind only Windows and Mac OS, one Internet usage research firm announced. The news is just the latest indication of the growing trend toward mobile computing.
While Windows had 91.3 percent of Internet usage, with Mac OS claiming five percent, iOS – which includes the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad – accounted for 1.1 percent of devices accessing the Internet in August, according to Net Applications. The figure put iOS ahead of both Android and Linux.
Talk of iPad shortages may be history if reports of Apple’s new marching orders for suppliers are true. Apple CEO Steve Jobs, after doubling iPads built to 2 million, recently ordered 3 million iPads for the fourth quarter of 2010, according to one analyst.
The figure puts Apple on track to ship 36 million iPads in calendar year 20111, just shy of the 40 million iPads expected to be purchased next year, according to Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty.
First Google launched a rival smart phone, now the Mountain View, Calif. Internet giant reportedly plans to assault Apple’s other revenue pillar – iTunes. The Google Vice President behind Android plans to launch an online music service by Christmas, a vision being warmly received by music executives, according to Reuters.
Music executives, while “grateful” to Apple for raising awareness of digital music, are now described as enthusiastic and hopeful Google can take on iTunes, which sells 70 percent of digital music in the United States.
LaCie’s latest, the MosKeyTo thumb drive — get it? Har. — is a product that manages to pull off the nearly miraculous: it’s not only just 20mm long, or about the same size as the nanoreceiver of some wireless mice, but it’s actually garnered our interest enough to break our oath and yet again hit the keyboard to write something about the most boring species of gadget on earth: the USB storage dongle.
It’s not the specs, which are standard. It’s not the price: 4GB for $17.99, or 8GB for $27.99. It’s not even the drive’s tininess. No, we’re writing about it to call attention to the official product image above, featuring a giant mosquito wildly fornicating with its namesake on the lid of a MacBook Pro.
Congrats on catching our attention, LaCie! Time to give someone in your art department a raise.
httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bBv1WkMUFs&feature=player_embedded
Valve Software’s transcendent physics and teleportation puzzler Portal already runs sublimely through Steam for Mac… as long as you have a modern MacBook Pro or iMac. But what if Portal wasn’t a modern game, but a classic Macintosh text adventure? This brilliant mock ad re-imagines Portal as a lost game rediscovered through a lost Saturday morning advertisement, complete with an appearance by a badly puppeted GlaDOS. Brilliant… although that green text really looks more at place on an Apple II, don’t you think?
There are a lot of iPod docks on the market, but not a lot of them have docking trays big enough to accommodate the iPad without snapping it in half over your knee first… a tact which has some obvious repercussions on the resulting music’s audio quality.
Phillips’ latest dock changes that with a docking tray wide enough to accommodate the iPad’s chunky width. Called the Fidelio, the dock also features Bluetooth so that your iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch doesn’t even need to be plugged in to avail itself of a nicer, room-filling speaker.
The Fidelio is also portable, with a battery that allows you to play music up to five hours per charge. Unfortunately, the Fidelio’s price and release date has yet to be announced.
[via, image Slashgear]
Apple’s fastest Mac is the 12-Core Mac Pro, featuring two 2.93 GHz Xeon processors. Configure it with 25GB of DDR3 ECC SDRAM, and Apple’s fastest Mac will cost you $8,749.00.
Yowza. That’s an extraordinary amount of money. If you don’t mind dropping an extra $300, though, you might be interested in Macintouch’s guide to building not Apple’s fastest Mac, but the world’s fastest Mac yourself.
Yup, according to Macintouch’s tests, their Hackintoshed monstrosity — a total beast of a machine running two 3.33GHz hexacore Westmere processors overclocked to 4.2GHz each and supplemented with 24GB of DDR3 RAM — melted the Mac Pro’s face off.
Of course, there’s a lot of drawbacks to this approach, including compatibility issues and a much louder system than the Mac Pro, as well as a desktop footprint that makes the Pro look compact. But as of right now, it seems that a Hackintosh is the fastest Mac in the world. God help us.
[via Hardmac]
Apple’s Automator is a fantastic way to manage your iTunes tracks… but with Apple’s iTunes 10 update, many iTunes-specific Automator workflows have simply stopped working.
According to upset users in Apple’s discussion forums, the vast majority of iTunes Automator actions go missing when you install iTunes 10. Try to run a previously created iTunes workflow and you will ironically be prompted to install iTunes 4.6 or higher. Ugh.
The good news here is that none of the functionality has disappeared from AppleScript, so it should be able to replicate the functionality if you change gears. Still, the sudden absence of iTunes functionality in Automator is mysterious: did Apple purposely drop the functionality, or is this a bug? If the former, what was Apple’s rationale?
It’s official: the iPhone has joined the ranks of iFurniture. Yesterday brought news of another iPhone coffee table, which joins a proud history of Apple-inspired furniture throughout the years. In another Geek Trend, some members of the Cult of Apple can now kick their feet up both with and on their iDevices while lounging at home.
When Steve Jobs announced the new palm-sized AppleTV on Wednesday, replete with AirPlay-streaming functionality from your computer’s iTunes library, 720p high-def video and Netflix capability, many of us wondered if Cupertino would (or even be able) to extend the new functionality back down the line to the older, drive-based model.
Nope, says Ars Technica. An Apple spokesperson confirmed to them that there will be no software updates to bring the new AppleTV functionality to the last generation model.
To be honest, I wasn’t suspecting anything different. According to Daring Fireball’s John Gruber, even though the AppleTV doesn’t look like it is running iOS, it is… an assertion supported by the new AppleTV’s A4 CPU. The new software probably doesn’t even work on old AppleTVs, and rolling out a major software update for the obsolete model would essentially require coding the functionality from scratch.
Still, it’s disappointing. I, like many AppleTV owners, gave Apple my money for their “hobbyist” device, supporting and defending it for years even while Apple ignored it. Now that they are taking the device seriously and finally bringing the AppleTV brand up to spec, though, Apple’s quick to abandon us.
[via 9to5Mac]
All across Europe, iPhone exclusivity deals have already toppled, but here in Germany, T-Mobile still remains standing as the sole carrier of the iPhone 4. The foundations are wobbly, though, as numerous other carriers in the country have begun selling the iPhone 3GS, marking the first time more than one company has offered the iPhone… even if one of those iPhone’s is markedly superior.
It now looks like T-Mobile’s exclusivity deal is finally about to collapse entirely though. According to the Wall Street Journal, Deutsche Telekom is preparing for the loss of the iPhone 4 exclusive in time for the holiday shopping season… while Vodafone and O2 are similarly preparing to carry it.
It’s in Apple’s best interest to sell the iPhone 4 on as many networks as possible, and every country that has seen an exclusivity deal end has seen iPhone sales and profits meteorically rise.
Note the timing here as well: T-Mobile is losing the iPhone 4 exclusive by the end of the year. Meanwhile, here in the States, it is heavily rumored that Verizon will get a special CDMA version of the iPhone 4 in January.
It looks like Apple is just letting all of its existing contracts lapse. Now that T-Mobile looks set to lose its exclusivity contract for the German market, can AT&T be far behind?
