New iPhone bezel shows speaker, color changes

Things are all coming together... This looks to be the bezel for the new iPhone (perhaps a 3.5G version which should ship with a better camera, video functions, faster network, etc.) There have been other photos posted, but this is the first one which shows an all black bezel and the speaker near the very top of the iPhone.

Purported next-gen iPhone bezel shows speaker, color changes | iLounge News: "Notably, the bezels appear to show a repositioned and redesigned ear speaker, now significantly higher above the display than the present speaker, and ringed with metal, a change that may make room for additional front-mounted sensor or camera hardware. Also changed is the bezel’s color, which has shifted from the prior silver in all iPhone and iPhone 3G models to a nearly black metallic color reminiscent of the backs of later fifth-generation iPod U2 Special Edition models. In the photos, the bezel now stops short of ringing the entire iPhone face, ending at roughly the edge of the LCD screen."

The Palm Pre syncs with iTunes

This is strange. Apple has never let anything but an iPod sync with iTunes. They must not be too worried about competition for the iPhone, or maybe they're just worried about monopoly issues with iTunes.

Scooplet: the Palm Pre syncs with iTunes - Apple 2.0: "Plug a Pre into a Mac and it syncs, seamlessly, with Apple’s (AAPL) iTunes.

In fact, the iTunes Store treats the Pre just as it would an iPod or an iPhone with one exception: it can’t handle old copy-protected songs."

Intel preview eight-core Nehalem-EX Xeon...16 Core MacPros here we come!

This is crazy fast. If you've not experienced on of the current 8-core Nehalem-based MacPros, and even if you have, you can't wrap your head around this. Basically with this hyper-threading (the current MacPros have this) you get a "virtual core" concept. What this does is lets the 4-core chip available today run 8 threads (computations) simultaneously - basically double what is should be doing. Now if you could cram 8-cores (Intel has!) onto that chip and then run TWO of them you're now talking about a 32-virtual-core system...each of which run at around 3Ghz. Now look at that image above and check out the roadmap...Gulp!

Intel peeks eight-core Nehalem-based Xeon: "The design will stand as Intel's first eight-core processor and, thanks to Hyperthreading, will run as many as 16 program threads at once. It will also have the most bandwidth of any design with four QuickPath interfaces, which create a point-to-point link between the CPU, memory and peripherals. Each core will have as much as nine times the bandwidth of present-day Xeon 7400 processors."

DJ Hero's turntable, crossfader peripheral spotted in E3 preview

Not bad, but I don't know if I understand the gameplay mechanics just by looking at it....

DJ Hero's turntable, crossfader peripheral spotted in E3 preview

Intel delays debut of Core i5 platform until early September

Some people are saying that this delay is coming from lack of competition. Currently AMD doesn't have anything near this power at this price point so it sounds like Intel is going to give the market some time to burn up the older boards and let the competition heat up.

Intel delays debut of Core i5 platform until early September: "Intel has decided to postpone the debut of its new mainstream desktop PC platform, Lynnfield processors (tentatively Core i5) and 5-series chipsets, from July as originally scheduled, to early September 2009, according to sources at motherboard makers."

Life-Size Katamari Lives!

This is pretty cool. If you've never played this game it usually uses the two analog sticks on your controller to drive the on-screen ball like a tank. This would be much easier...

Kellbot! � Life-Size Katamari Lives: "It uses an optical mouse to track the ball. I gathered up some cheap PS2 controllers, ripped out the potentiometers on the analog sticks, and replaced it with a digital potentiometer and an arduino. The arduino takes signals from two PS/2 mice (one for each analog stick) and adjusts the potentiometer accordingly."

Tony Hawk's Ride coming to GameStop October 13th for $120

GameStop has setup pre-orders for Tony Hawk's Ride - you know, the one with the faux skateboard sans wheels/trucks and a few more buttons than your current Birdhouse.

Tony Hawk's Ride coming to GameStop October 13th for $120: "That'll be the damage due according to GameStop where Tony Hawk's Ride game with skateboard peripheral lists for $119.99 with a simultaneous Wii, Xbox 360, and PS3 launch on October 13th."

Teens are texting machines and it's taking it's toll

Now I'm not saying texting is bad, but this is crazy! I'm all for texting to a certain level, but when it interferes with actual human interactions then we've got a problem. One of my biggest peeves is when you're with someone who cannot stop checking their phone. A few times is fine, but when it's every 60-90 seconds then you're obviously not spending time with the people currently in the room with you. Anyways, I guess it's not just an issue of manners anymore...

Texting May Be Taking a Toll on Teenagers - NYTimes.com: "Spurred by the unlimited texting plans offered by carriers like AT&T Mobility and Verizon Wireless, American teenagers sent and received an average of 2,272 text messages per month in the fourth quarter of 2008, according to the Nielsen Company — almost 80 messages a day, more than double the average of a year earlier."

New iPhone to have matte finish and "enhanced 3G"?

This isn't a huge shock. This photo was leaked a long time ago and seems reasonable. The current iPhone 3G with it's glossy back can become impossible to hang onto if there is any moisture on your hands or it is raining.

Next Generation iPhone Case to Have Matte Finish? Enhanced 3G? - Mac Rumors: "The models are described as '3G, enhanced 3G ('3.5G/3.75G'), and mainland China versions'. The case is said to be the same general design as the current model but with a 'less scratchable matte plastic body'. A previously leaked case image is included above which matches this description."

June 1 New Yorker Cover Is Painted With an iPhone

New Yorker Cover Art Is Painted With an iPhone - NYTimes.com: "Mr. Colombo drew the June 1 cover scene, of a late-night gathering around a 42nd Street hot dog stand, entirely with the iPhone application Brushes. Because of the smears and washes of color required by the inexact medium, it comes off as dreamy, not sharp and technological."

More Evidence of Apple's Massive Marketshare Growth

More Evidence of Apple's Massive Marketshare Growth in Higher Education - Mac Rumors: "The chart above shows that Apple has made steady gains since 2003 in the percentage of incoming UVA freshman who own a Mac. The latest year (2008) shows that 37% of incoming students owned a Mac while the percentage owning a Windows computer had shrunk to 62% from a peak of 96% in 2001. The growth tracks closely with the trend towards laptop ownership amongst the Virginia freshman. In 2008, 99% of the incoming students owned a laptop."

Entelligence: Time for Microsoft to tell a better Zune tale

Here's a great editorial from Engadget's Michael Gartenberg about the ad from M$ for the Zune Pass, and I think it makes a lot of really good points. Check out the full article, but here's a snippet...

Entelligence: Time for Microsoft to tell a better Zune tale: "What's wrong? First, it took a shot at Apple that felt silly -- after all, most consumers don't spend $30,000 to fill up their iPod (how much did it cost to fill yours?). Even if that's the case, buying a Zune Pass won't fill up an iPod either. Second, it started to make a value play that's real, but stopped short of actually making it."

New iPhone to be 600MHz up from 412MHz

Electronista | New iPhone said getting 'next-gen' CPU: "The next revision of the iPhone should be characterized by a dramatic increase in processing power, an alleged scoop by veterain technology writer John Gruber says. He refers to 'informed' sources who say the iPhone will jump from its existing 412MHz clock speed to 600MHz but adds that a change in architecture should lead to a disproportionately larger increase in performance."

Pay Up: Microsoft Wins Patent for Crippling Your Computer

This is great! They actually patented this...

Pay Up: Microsoft Wins Patent for Crippling Your Computer

Dell warns Windows 7 will raise PC prices

Not a huge surprise if you've noticed that Microsoft is nearly paying people to buy Vista machines. If you don't believe it go configure a Dell mini with Vista and DOWNGRADE to your XP and it will add $150 to your machine. Anyways...

Electronista | Dell warns Windows 7 will raise PC prices: "He sees the price change as sufficiently high that some smaller businesses, governments and schools simply couldn't afford to update.
'In tough economic times, I think it's naive to believe that you can increase your prices on average and then still see a stronger swell than if you held prices flat or even lowered them,' Ward says."

Jonathan Ive wins 'most creative' award

Jonny Ive is pretty cool. If you don't know him I guarantee you know his work. He is the lead product designer for Apple. He is behind the iMac, the iPod, the iPhone and even little things that you might not notice like EVE from WALL-E!

Jonathan Ive | Fast Company: "Ten years ago, before the iPod and the iPhone became objects of the world's electro-lust, Jonathan Ive sat down with Fast Company to talk about his first Apple blockbuster, the iMac. The machine could not have been a more radical departure from the ubiquitous beige-box PC: a desktop computer in bright candy colors with a see-through shell showing its inner machinery. Bursting onto the scene with all the subtlety of a streaker, the iMac became the top-selling computer in the United States."

More Snow Leopard images and videos!

So some of the videos were pulled from YouTube so check these out before they're gone! I particularly like the editing of the Services menu.

MacNN | Some Snow Leopard imagery pulled, more surfaces: "More such images and videos have appeared at a French website however, allegedly exposing the look and features of Apple's next operating system. The software should for instance support native screen recording through QuickTime X, which hides itself during the recording process to provide an unobstructed view. Completed clips can be exported into different sizes and formats, such as ones for iPhones, iPods and the Apple TV."

iPhone Push Notification Screenshots

iPhone Push Notification Settings and Screenshots - Mac Rumors: "Apple began high volume testing of the upcoming Push notification system for iPhone applications earlier this week. The system offers 3rd party applications the ability to push notifications to the user even when they are not the running application."

LOADS of Snow Leoapard details! Build 10A286 Pictures and Videos!

Whoa! So a big leak made it's way out today. We finally have screenshots from a build of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard! Very exciting stuff...

Trash "Put Back" so you don't need to remember where that document used to live

Okay, maybe not that exciting, but let's hope there are more updates than just these little shots.

Finally there is a preference for searching the current folder as default instead of the whole system.

Alright, I sadly don't have time to go into all the details, but hit the link and check out all the goods at the translated site. Snow Leopard is looking good!

All the details translated by Google!

UPDATE: Dang, looks like the videos have been pulled from YouTube. Oh well, WWDC is only a few weeks away and Phil should show off lots of the new toys in 10.6

Fennec Alpha 1 for Windows Mobile at Brad’s Blog

Normally I'd avoid all things Windows Mobile, but Fennec from Mozilla (yeah, the Firefox guys) is now available for download to devs. It's worth a note.

Fennec Alpha 1 for Windows Mobile at Brad’s Blog: "We are pleased to announce that Fennec Alpha 1 for Windows Mobile 6 is available for download by developers and testers."

New iPhone 3.5G will look the same and iPod getting cameras?!

According to these guys at Macbidouille (it's a French site, deal with it how you will, but I linked to Hardmac for my English) are saying that the new iPhone - probably due this summer - will be the same size and have the same shape. This holds up most other leaks that are hinting at minor updates to the iPhone 3G for this summer.

The more interesting bit is that they are saying that the iPod Touch and the iPod nano will also be getting cameras. If the 3.0 software has better images as is being found with the beta...then mix that with a 3.2 megapixel camera this might not be all bad. Though, I doubt you'll see a flash of any kind on an iPhone in the near future.

Hardmac.com : Le "Macbidouille" in English - [Rumors] Informations about the Future iPhone and iPod:

"The future iPhone models will have exactly the same shape and size than the current iPhone 3G, despite fakes and rumors circulating.

Apple should refresh models for the iPod nano and Touch in september. Both should now include a camera, similarly to the iPhone."

Is the new iPhone called Project Charlie?

It looks like some Best Buy employee was poking around the inventory system and found some random phones from AT&T that have an...interesting, name. "Project Charlie" might be some lame phone case, but who knows...

Project Charlie - three secret AT&T devices bound for Best Buy (Phone Arena News): "Taking a peek into Best Buy's inventory system reveals three AT&T phones that have a “Project Charlie” codename. The three new phone SKUs came up recently and our tipster said it could possibly be the new versions of the iPhone. Most likely the reasoning behind the three models are possibly due to different colors or memory capacities that would be available."

HDMI 1.4 delivers internet with the HD goodness

HDMI 1.4 brings internet sharing, dreadful tiers of quality:

HDMI is pretty much awesome. The newest version of HDMI, 1.4, has just been shown off and it's got a ton of tricks for being just another video cable.

"Put simply, this could allow a 'broadband-connected television using its HEC-enabled HDMI port to provide internet connection sharing with another HEC-enabled device such as a game console or DVR.'"

Imagine hooking up your new Xbox or Playstation and just plugging it into your television and having it automatically online, connected with the highest quality HD video and surround sound with one cable. Pretty sweet! Now we all just need TVs that are broadband ready. This one might have to simmer for a while.

Quad-Core Apple Notebooks Possible...

Quad-Core Nehalem Apple Notebooks Possible in Q3 2009? - Mac Rumors:

This is one I've been waiting on for a while now. I love the current MacBook Pro design, but it's so similar in specs and design to the MacBook it's hardly standing out of the crowd. Let's just dream of a Quad 2.0Ghz MacBook Pro....

"Intel, however, is said to be only launching three mobile Nehalem processors this year -- all Quad core but with slower processor speeds from 1.6GHz, 1.73GHz and 2.0GHz.

The Core 2 Extreme XE, Core 2 Quad P2 and Core 2 Quad P1, will be priced at US$1,054, US$546 and US$364 in thousand-unit tray quantities, the sources revealed.

It won't be until the 1st quarter of 2010 that we'll see mobile Arrandale processors which have been widely expected to be used in the MacBook and MacBook Pro."

PS3 slim photos?

I'll just leave this here....

Wild and slim PS3 redesign caught on camera?: "There seem to be a lot of similarities to the Slimline PS2, while still holding onto that curvature the PS3 is so well known for, and even squeezing in a slot-loading disc drive and 120GB hard drive. Of course, Sony has issued a pretty strong denial of existing PS3 slim rumors, stating that 'We currently don't have any plans for a redesigned PS3 at this time,' but that's a pretty common way for Sony to deal with rumors, no matter which way they fall."

New iPhones to premiere only after WWDC?

MacNN | New iPhones to premiere only after WWDC?:

Now I've never paid too much attention to Piper Jaffray's analysts' comments on Apple - they usually seem to be WAY off or are talking about what is already a 99% deal, but this is an interesting point from the MacNN article...

"Thought to be more likely is a surprise media event, which could be staged in late June or early July to coincide with the return of Steve Jobs to the public eye. There the Apple CEO may introduce a 'family' of new iPhones, split between high-end models and low-end spin-offs, the latter having reduced features but also cheaper subscription deals."

Apple would clearly want to make a big announcement for the return of Steve Jobs - in full health we hope - and the iPhone has always been his product to announce. So, it's very possible that WWDC will have a 3.0 recap - similar to what they did last year for the 2.0 - and then show off 10.6. WWDC is generally a software focused deal where Apple talks to the developers more than shows off for the consumers - it is called the worldwide DEVELOPER'S conference after all.

Phil Schiller to give the WWDC 09 Keynote Address

This isn't a huge surprise with Steve still out on his medical leave, and Phil has done keynotes in the past. While it probably won't have the flare that a Steve Jobs Keynote usually does, it should be good. Let's look for Snow Leopard 10.6 and a new upgraded 32Gb iPhone 3.5G with iPhone 3.0 software.

Apple Worldwide Developers Conference to Kick Off with Keynote Address on Monday, June 8: "Apple will kick off its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with a keynote address on Monday, June 8 at 10:00 a.m. A team of Apple executives, led by Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, will deliver the keynote."

Apple FINALLY shipping iPhone 3G to you

Apple - iPhone - Buy iPhone 3G

Wow, this took almost a full year to happen, but Apple is FINALLY shipping these guys to customers. Normally you had to be in the store so they could do the whole activation, credit check, phone number transfer, etc.

This is really good news for those of you who might travel and maybe get your phone stolen or just lost while you're in, say, Canada for 3 weeks on tour and cannot, under any circumstance, get to an AT&T (it's Rogers in Canada) store to get a new iPhone.

Rejoice...at least for a while, it's almost time for a whole new model anyways!

Apple Releases Mac OS X 10.5.7

Apple Releases Mac OS X 10.5.7 Update - Mac Rumors

I don't usually post about updates, but this one has been long rumored and there seems to be much hype. Anyways...start your downloads!

UPDATE: Apple has now posted an update for Safari Beta 4. It just looks like a security fix, but let's hope there was a little more to it than that.

UPDATE 2: So I've finally installed it and it's all good. I haven't noticed any major changes, but it's only been a few hours. I did install the Safari 4 Beta update right away - before launching Safari at all. The whole process on a new MacBook Pro 2.4Ghz took me about 30 minutes (including the 2 reboots)

Microsoft ads begin to target iTunes

iPodNN | Microsoft ads begin to target iTunes:

This is an interesting bit...

"The ad does not mention however that subscribers can only permanently keep 10 tracks a month, and that any track not chosen to keep is lost should a person unsubscribe. The latter music can also be synced only to Zune players.

Microsoft advertising has become intensely focused on Apple in recent months, a delayed response to Apple's long history of anti-Windows campaigning. The spearhead in Microsoft efforts has been the Laptop Hunters series of TV spots, which observe that comparatively-equipped PC notebooks are frequently cheaper than MacBooks. The company has been slowly eroding computer marketshare to Apple during the past several years."

Wes also seems to forget that you can download CD's you've purchased over the years and you can play the music (now DRM-free) on any player you want from iTunes. Details....

Apple issues code freeze on Snow Leopard APIs

MacNN | Apple issues code freeze on Snow Leopard APIs:

It looks like Snow Leopard is getting ready to pounce! Let's hope for a good showing at WWDC '09!

"Apple has issued what may be its most significant seed of Mac OS X Snow Leopard to date, developer sources indicate. With build 10A354 Apple is said to be freezing the APIs for the operating system, allowing developers to code on the assumption that all key components are in place."

No Bittorrent Control on your iPhone!

Apple rejects Bittorrent control app from App Store because it might be used to infringe copyrights: "Sigh. Just as we thought Apple's ridiculous App Store approval process was about to get better with the advent of parental controls in iPhone OS 3.0, it goes and pulls another boneheaded move that makes us wonder if the entire system isn't hopelessly broken forever. This time the company's rejected Maza's Drivetrain, an app that allows users to remotely control the Transmission Bittorrent app, because 'this category of applications is often used for the purpose of infringing third party rights.'"

Missouri School of Journalism's iPhone "requirement" a clever interpretation of financial aid rules

Missouri School of Journalism's iPhone "requirement" a clever interpretation of financial aid rules: "Here's an interesting new mandate for all of Missouri School of Jounalism's incoming freshman: equip themselves with iPhones and iPod touches. Actually, let's go ahead and clarify what 'mandate' means here, as associate dean Brian Brooks has stated that no one will a be punished for not buying / owning one. While noting the audio recording and playback capabilities were motivation for this decision, he explains the reason it's classified as a requirement is because it lets students include it in their financial need estimate -- wholly beneficial when you're figuring out scholarships and loans."

Inspired Bikes

Prepare for a mind explosion!

Microsoft "Laptop" ads made on Macs?

Electronista | Microsoft "Laptop" ads made on Macs?: "Microsoft's Laptop Hunter ads were potentially made by a largely Mac-based marketing firm, a visit to Crispin Porter Bogusky shows."

BUSTED!

Apple sweeps Consumer Reports Laptop Guide

Consumer Reports Takes a Shine to Apple - Gadgetwise Blog - NYTimes.com: "Hitting for the cycle is a rare event in baseball, and rare as well in the pages of Consumer Reports."

Apple can do it!