Iphone Updates

Autodesk, proprietor of popular 2D/3D design software AutoCAD, is about to bring AutoCAD back to the Mac after a nearly two decade estrangement. AutoCAD is to engineering and architecture design what Photoshop is to photo editing, so this is a Pretty Big Deal.

Like many software makers (and users), Autodesk bailed on the Mac platform during the early 1990s, at least as far as AutoCAD is concerned. Since then, it’s been one of the biggest of the big names in software absent from the OS X platform and one of the few things Windows evangelists could point to and say, “Yeah, well Macs can’t run that!” Starting in October, your Mac will run AutoCAD, as long as you’re willing to pay around $4000 for it (the same price as the PC version).

Not only that, Autodesk is reportedly working on an iOS version of AutoCAD as well. AutoCAD WS will be a free download from the App Store and will run on iPads, iPhones, and iPod touches. Naturally you won’t get the same functionality out of the free app that you will out of the $4000 Mac software; while the mobile version will be able to view AutoCAD files generated on PCs or Macs, don’t expect to be able to make more than very minor alterations on an iPad. Still, as the New York Times notes, carrying around blueprints on a svelte electronic device like an iPad beats schlepping big rolls of paper around on a job site.

Welcome back to the Mac, AutoCAD!

TUAWAutoCAD comes back to the Mac originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 31 Aug 2010 02:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AutoCAD – Apple – IPhone – App Store – Autodesk

Apple today announced the new iPod touch, packed with incredible new features including Apple’s stunning Retina display, FaceTime video calling, HD video recording, Apple’s A4 chip, 3-axis gyro, iOS 4.1, and Game Center — all combined in the thinnest and lightest iPod touch ever. The new iPod touch features up to 40 hours of music playback and seven hours of video playback on a single battery charge.

iPod nano has been completely redesigned with Multi-Touch, which lets you navigate your music collection by simply tapping or swiping a finger on the display. Nearly half the size and weight of the previous generation, the new iPod nano features a polished aluminum and glass enclosure with a built-in clip, making it instantly wearable.

The redesigned iPod shuffle features both clickable buttons and Apple’s innovative VoiceOver technology, enabling you to easily navigate your music and playlists without ever looking at your iPod shuffle. The wearable iPod shuffle has an all-aluminum enclosure with a built-in clip and comes in five brilliant colors — silver, blue, green, orange, and pink.

iTunes 10 features Ping, a new social network for music that lets you follow your favorite artists and friends to discover what music they’re talking about, listening to, and downloading. With Ping you can post your thoughts and opinions, your favorite albums and songs, and the music you’ve downloaded from iTunes — plus view concert listings and tell your friends which concerts you plan to attend.

The new Apple TV offers the simplest way to watch your favorite HD movies and TV shows on your HD TV for the breakthrough price of just $99. With Apple TV, you can choose from the largest online selection of HD movies to rent, including first-run movies for just $4.99, and the largest online selection of HD TV show episodes to rent — from ABC, ABC Family, Fox, Disney Channel, and BBC America — for just 99 cents.

If you’re familiar with the Scene It? franchise for the Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii, you’ve probably never thought of having a similar model work on an iPhone or an iPad. If you’re like me, you may have an “of course” moment when you first see the Griffin PartyDock.

Thanks to the FCC posting the PartyDock filing from Griffin earlier this week we’re now getting our first look at a very cool new product. The PartyDock will let up to four people play a game together with four individual remotes on a single iPhone 4 or iPad connected to your TV. Griffin has confirmed that party, family and casual games will be available via the App Store, but they will need to be designed or adapted specifically to work with the PartyDock.

Griffin will be shipping three mini-games and one full game along with the device. The photos on Griffin’s product site show what appears to be a Battle of the Sexes port from Imagination Games, but it may or may not be one of the games included in the bundle.

TUAWGriffin confirms PartyDock iPad/iPhone peripheral is on the way originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 28 Aug 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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IPhone – Apple – App Store – Unofficial Apple Weblog – GriffinPartydock

There are plenty of hurdles between a good idea and App Store success; even after your killer app hits the virtual shelves, the challenges of discoverability and competitors sandbagging your app with Astroturfed bad reviews add up to plenty of headaches. Still, once past the biggest stumbling block — Apple giving a thumbs up or thumbs down — things should get easier, right?

Unfortunately, some intriguing apps end up in approval limbo, the stranded state between all-clear and no-thanks that’s reserved for some of the most innovative and paradigm-busting apps; the apps that make Apple go “Hmm…” and force the app approval team to exercise the pocket veto. Without a clear rejection (telling the dev what can be fixed), there’s nothing to do but wait.

The most high-profile limbo case is Google Voice, which as far as we know is still being reviewed by Apple’s team more than a year after it was submitted. The latest is Briefs, a well-regarded app prototyping tool which may be running afoul of the no-interpreted-code ban in section 3.3.2 of Apple’s developer agreement, despite the assertion that Briefs doesn’t work in a way that’s forbidden by Apple’s rules. Even though developer Rob Rhyne made a cogent case to Apple’s team on the merits, and even with some high-level support from contacts made at WWDC, Briefs remains unapproved and unrejected.

Rather than wait indefinitely with his 1.0 growing stale, Rhyne has decided to offer the existing version as open source, which iPhone developers can compile and install on their testing devices. Rob’s colleague Jeff Lamarche at Martian Craft voices his frustration here.

In many ways, this could be an App Store success story: developer dedication and innovation, open lines of communication between indies and Apple, an open source tool that can improve app development for scores of coders. The only problem is that darned silent treatment, and the missing timeline for escalation. If an app can’t make it on the store, it seems the least Apple ought to do is say so and say why.

TUAWApp Store approval limbo boxes in Briefs originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 27 Aug 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AppStore – Unofficial Apple Weblog – Apple – Google – IPhone

There’s been lots of rumors in the past about iTunes going to some sort of a cloud-based service, with the ability to store or access music remotely over the Internet, but the new word around town is that what’s actually revealed at the event next week won’t be quite so ambitious. Peter Kafka over at All Things Digital now says that instead of streaming, the new iTunes might be more social, with iTunes accounts serving as nodes on which users can share recommendations for apps or songs, or even share playlists or song information. You wouldn’t actually be able to share music, but the idea would be to lay the groundwork on a more connected iTunes system, and set up the music software as not only a location to store your personal music, but to connect with others through the media.

Sounds interesting, and of course a rumor like that dovetails right into what Apple is working on with Game Center, where iTunes accounts will serve as the portal for connections in and around App Store games. This current round of speculation also includes improvements for the web-based version of iTunes pages, and presumably improved ways to browse and post app reviews and recommendations.

As always, we’ll have to see. Nothing’s confirmed until Steve walks out on stage and shows it to us, so even if Apple is working on a system like this, there’s no confirmation we’ll see it at the event next week until we, you know, do.

TUAWRumor: Social networking coming to iTunes originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 26 Aug 2010 18:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple – App Store – iTunes – All Things Digital – Unofficial Apple Weblog

TeleNav is the developer of a lot of mobile navigation applications, including AT&T Navigator for the iPhone. Now the company has come out with an iPhone version of a popular app that originally launched for the BlackBerry platform — OnMyWay.

OnMyWay has a simple goal — it tells another person or group of people that you are currently “on your way” and sends them the estimated time of your arrival. The app sends new alerts to your contacts if your ETA changes (if you’re stuck in traffic, for instance), so that you can safely continue driving and not have to call or text someone else if you’re running late.

To set up a notification, the iPhone owner inputs a destination, an appointment time, and one or more phone numbers or email addresses to send alerts to, then taps the start button. iPhone contacts are integrated into the app to make setting up the notifications a snap.

OnMyWay takes care of the rest of the trip. It starts by sending an initial notification to the recipients telling them that the driver has started his trip, and then includes an estimated time of arrival. Up to three additional status messages might be sent, depending on how the driver has set up the app; if the sender is going to be late, if the person is within a pre-set number of minutes away from the destination, and when the driver is one minute from arriving.

Where I could see this app being a real boon is in letting my wife know when I’ll be getting back from an appointment. If I’m running a little late, she usually pings me via text, and I have to pull over and send her a response. With OnMyWay, she’d be getting updates and would hopefully leave me to my driving… Some screenshots are in the gallery below.

TUAWTeleNav releases free OnMyWay notification app for iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 26 Aug 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TeleNav – iPhone – BlackBerry – Unofficial Apple Weblog – Navigation

As expected, Apple has sent out a quick reminder that the annual discount offer for college students — buy a new Mac, get a free iPod touch — is expiring September 7. While this date was expected to coincide with the rock & roll introduction event, we now know that the big shindig will be taking place next Tuesday Wednesday, September 1.

Got some money burning a hole in your pocket? Are you, or do you know a college student? Time for that new Mac, but it’s running out.

TUAWIn brief: Free iPod with Mac purchase offer ends 9/7 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 26 Aug 2010 12:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple – Unofficial Apple Weblog – iPod – IPod Touch – Macintosh

The image above was shot by Jason Mullins with his iPhone 4 on a flight from London to Guernsey. The weird black lines you can see are actually distorted, disconnected copies of the propeller blades, but this isn’t a Photoshop hack; this was how the image came out of the phone.

Virtually all consumer grade digital cameras, including cell phones, do not take the picture instantly when you push the shutter button. Instead, they quickly scan over the CCD CMOS sensor from the top left to the bottom right, like the electron beam in an old CRT television. This is called rolling shutter capture. This scanning process is fast, but sometimes it’s not fast enough. If you angle the device just right and take pictures of fast moving or rotating objects, you can create all sorts of weird and funky distortion effects. You can see more like this in the rolling shutter Flickr group.

(Thanks to Jason for letting us reproduce his shot; he’s put a few more pictures on Flickr from the same flight.)

[Post updated to correct CCD vs. CMOS sensor used in the iPhone.]

TUAWRolling shutter effect can make stunning iPhone photos originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 26 Aug 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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IPhone – Unofficial Apple Weblog – Apple – Television – Handhelds

MobileMe customers who use the web apps will experience some down time later today as Apple performs some scheduled maintenance.

Expect the web services to be offline between 10:00 PM and 12:30 AM Pacific Time. Apple doesn’t mention if other services will be affected, so we assume you’ll still be able to send and receive email via Mail for the Mac and iOS, as well as manage events with iCal. If you’re restricted to using the web apps, get your work done early and enjoy a little forced down time later tonight.

For the latest MobileMe news and status updates, you can look here (the closest Apple has come to maintaining a blog). You’ll find a history of recent status updates here.

TUAWMobileMe to go down for scheduled maintenance originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 26 Aug 2010 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple – Unofficial Apple Weblog – MobileMe – ICal – Mail

Steam has released its latest hardware survey results, and there’s both good and bad news for us Mac gamers. The bad news first: Mac usage of the gaming service has apparently leveled off since the big debut a few months ago, and while the Mac share was originally around 8%, it appears the novelty has worn off a bit, and Mac usage has fallen down to about 5% of the total Steam audience. That’s not too surprising (don’t forget that the service kicked off with a free Portal game and a good amount of publicity), and it’s important to remember that 5% of Steam’s 25 million users is still a significant audience. It’ll be interesting to see if Apple ever takes advantage of that — we haven’t heard a single official word from them yet about Steam coming to our platform, although the Snow Leopard Graphics Update was tuned to clear up issues that Valve reported.

The good news, however, is that Valve has separated out Windows and Mac stats in the hardware survey, so even though there are a few less percentage points of people to look at, we have a lot of interesting information about those Mac users. As you can see in the graphic above, the majority of them are actually playing on a MacBook Pro — iMacs are the next biggest model on the list, but represent 25% of Mac users as opposed to the MBP’s 49%.

Steam is also promising a list of most commonly installed Mac applications, but as of this writing, that information isn’t posted quite yet. Unfortunately, while Steam is installed on a wide variety of Windows computers, I’ll bet that it hasn’t quite reached widespread adoption on the Mac side, so these stats will be specifically for Mac gamers rather than the Mac audience as a whole. But it’s always interesting to see what stats come out of the Steam Hardware Survey, as a snapshot of just what our technology profile looks like.

[via Joystiq]

TUAWSteam releases Mac stats, share drops to 5% originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 25 Aug 2010 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple – Macintosh – Mac – Unofficial Apple Weblog – Steam

Peavey and Agile Partners have just introduced AmpKit and AmpKit LiNK, an iPhone-based hardware/app combo that takes portable guitar and bass effects to a new level. It’s loud, it’s lightweight, and it’s an extremely flexible (and relatively inexpensive) alternative to a floor full of pedals.

Matt Tinsley recently reviewed the iRig and AmpliTube combination that also became available recently. I pre-ordered the iRig, and I loved it from the moment I got it in the mail and plugged my guitar into it (I did unbox it first). I received a review unit of the AmpKit LiNK this month, though, and for the last couple of weeks, it’s been the mainstay of my practice sessions.

I’ll tell you up front that I’m not currently gigging, so I can’t attest to the road durability of this hardware, or the actual feasibility of using it onstage. I don’t doubt that it would perform well on both counts, but I haven’t battle-tested it. That being said, click “Read More” for my thoughts on the AmpKit/LiNK setup.

TUAWAmpKit, a new way to shred with your iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 25 Aug 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Guitar – Apple – IPhone – Unofficial Apple Weblog – AmpliTube

Project Sanctuary is one of the best dual-stick shooters I’ve seen on the App Store yet. It’s quick and responsive, and it’s got a surprisingly solid back-end, which includes four different characters to choose from, multiple game modes and settings, and even an in-game talent tree where you can specialize your characters and weapons as necessary in order to bring the best fight that you can. The game has a serviceable storyline, but the action here is all about shooting, moving, and using power-ups and weapons to take down as many enemies as possible.

If the game has an issue, it’s that the view isn’t quite as big as it could be. That kind of helps the intensity (as enemies can jump up on you quickly), but it’d be nice to see a little bit more of the field as you run around. It doesn’t hurt the core gameplay, though; if you’re a dual-stick shooter fan, you’ll find some terrific hardcore action here for sure. Achievements and the ability to replay maps will help you keep playing, too. I wasn’t able to try co-op, but the game reportedly has four player co-op available, which seems like it would make for a good time. At US$2.99, this is probably one for the genre veterans. If you’ve never played a dual-stick shooter before, I’d go with something a little more polished (Minigore is a good, traditional place to start). But if you’re a dual-stick veteran seeking a little more depth, check out Project Sanctuary on the App Store now.

TUAWTUAW’s Daily App: Project Sanctuary originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 25 Aug 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AppStore – Unofficial Apple Weblog – Game – Daily App: Project Sanctuary – IPhone

Back when I was a kid, I kept my most valuable possessions, my baseball and basketball card collection, in a shoe box. Apparently, so too did former Apple employee Paul Devine. Devine is accused of wire fraud and conspiracy on the basis that he collected more than $2.5 million in kickbacks from Apple’s suppliers. And during their investigation, officials found $125,000 stored away in shoe boxes at his home, as well as more than $20,000 worth of foreign currency. Prosecutors also allege that Devine may have other sources of cash.

In Devine’s position as a global supply manager at Apple, it’s alleged that he was privy to information such as projected sales of Apple products, the cost to manufacture an Apple product, and the prices of bids from competing suppliers. Prosecutors allege that he leveraged this knowledge by providing it to those in the supply chain in return for kickbacks.

The allegations against Devine are noteworthy, given Apple’s penchant for secrecy. For instance, according to reports, Apple employees must test unreleased products in secret rooms under covered workstations, and are not allowed to follow other employees too closely.

[via Macworld]

TUAWFormer Apple manager accused of hiding $125k in shoeboxes originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 24 Aug 2010 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple – Unofficial Apple Weblog – Supply chain – Paul Devine – Wire fraud

Here’s another rumor about the new Apple TV (or “iTV” as some are calling it), which may be in the cards for the upcoming Apple event in two weeks.

Bloomberg is reporting that Apple is in advanced talks with several media outlets to offer TV show rentals through iTunes for 99 cents an episode. Each episode would be made available within 24 hours of the episode’s airing on television, allowing one to essentially rent the episode for 48 hours, commercial-free.

This isn’t such a huge surprise, really, though it does strongly support the idea of a new Apple TV device and cloud-based streaming services to handle these rentals.

It’ll be interesting to see if one would be able to get a discount on a season pass of streaming episodes. If you watch two shows every weeknight, that’s about $40 a month. Depending on how many networks get on board, even at three shows a night at $60/month seems like a bargain against what some cable and satellite companies charge. Even a better deal, when they are commercial free and viewable on many devices.

TUAWiTunes TV show rentals for 99 cents may be on the way originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 24 Aug 2010 21:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple – AppleTV – iTunes – Unofficial Apple Weblog – Television program

Computer Shopper makes the quad-core Mac Pro an Editors’ Choice, citing its speedy performance, easy upgradability, and new lower price. The reviewers write: “Creative professionals who need a machine with both muscle and good looks, and Mac fans who love to game, will find a lot to like in the new Mac Pro.”

I guess with all of the money flowing around iTunes, sooner or later someone would have to try to steal some of it. Twelve people have been charged in the UK with basically laundering money through iTunes — they were allegedly uploading their own tracks onto the music sales service, then buying those same tracks with stolen credit card numbers. The fraudsters nabbed over $300,000 worth of royalties in just a four month period between September 2008 and January 2009.

The Register doesn’t note how the 12 (who come from a surprising number of various jobs and backgrounds) came up with this idea, or how they got caught, although there was an investigation underway by the FBI. iTunes wasn’t the only service defrauded — Amazon was reportedly used for some of the transactions as well.

The suspects are scheduled to appear on bail next month, and I’m sure both Apple and Amazon have taken steps to make sure this doesn’t happen again. Even so, out of all of the millions if not billions of dollars running through iTunes, if this $300,000 is all of the theft they need to worry about, Apple’s doing pretty well anyway.

[via MDN]

TUAW12 people charged in iTunes royalty fraud originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 24 Aug 2010 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iTunes – Apple – Fraud – Credit card – Unofficial Apple Weblog

There’s no questioning that the iPhone/iPad game Angry Birds is a huge success. The company is close to seven million downloads of the game, all without any direct advertising of their own.

Now the company that developed the game, Rovio, is taking a serious look into more commercial avenues for the title, including movies. The company has already done a great job with the animation within the product, including a cinematic trailer released on YouTube (which I guess you could say is technically advertisement — check it out after the jump). But is there enough to this to make for a good story?

According to Rovio, the company has been approached by several very interested parties, including movie studios, and they’re giving all offers serious consideration. Chief exec Mikael Hed has grand ambitions to see the Angry Birds brand become much more than games, akin to Pixar with Toy Story, so games and movies would just be the tip of the iceberg.

Do you think something like Angry Birds could translate well enough to other mediums? Is there a potential story in there worth developing?

TUAWAngry Birds: The Movie? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 22 Aug 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Pixar – Animation – Toy Story – YouTube – Unofficial Apple Weblog

In just over three years, iTunes U downloads have topped 300 million — making it one of the world’s most popular online educational catalogs. A dedicated area within the iTunes Store, iTunes U offers users public access to university courses, lab demonstrations, special lectures, and more from world class institutions such as Harvard, MIT, Cambridge, Oxford, University of Melbourne, and Université de Montréal.

Halfbrick Studios really made a splash with their iPhone debut, Fruit Ninja, and now they’ve followed it up with a little game called Monster Dash. It’s a running game in the vein of Canabalt, but rather than dodging skyscraper jumps and bombs, you’re fighting through pixelated monsters while sprinting along. The main addition to the game is a “shoot” button, so in addition to jumping obstacles and gaps as they come up, you can mow down enemies with various weapons, such as the (default) flameburster, uzis, and even a machine gun jetpack (that comes in handy when jumping).

It’s a lot of fun (as you’d probably expect if you’ve played either Canabalt or Fruit Ninja), and the game comes with Halfbrick’s requisite polish, including excellent lush graphics and full OpenFeint compatibility. If there’s a downside, it’s too bad that Halfbrick decided to just stick with the usual arcade formula. It’d be cool if they tried for something a little less shallow and a little more engrossing. This is just a bunch of levels and a chance to rush for the high score; nothing else carries over from one game to the next.

That’s just nitpicking, though. Halfbrick has done another great job on this one and pushed the newborn genre forward with their own twist. It’s well worth the 99 cents. And if you do buy it, try tapping on the title screen monsters just for fun.

TUAWTUAW’s Daily App: Monster Dash originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 20 Aug 2010 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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IPhone – Canabalt – Unofficial Apple Weblog – OpenFeint – Video game

Maybe I’m missing the point of Hulu Plus, but for ten bucks a month why is Hulu still showing me advertisements? I get that this new for-pay streaming video service offers full seasons (and past seasons) of current TV shows that would otherwise be limited to a handful of the most recent episodes. I get that the service works over Wi-Fi and 3G, and all the killer functionality that entails.

What I don’t get is why anyone wouldn’t apply their annual $120 somewhere, for ad-free services like Netflix.

TUAWHands on with Hulu Plus originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 19 Aug 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Netflix – Hulu – Television – Unofficial Apple Weblog – Streaming media

Everyone’s favorite sticky note has appeared on the Apple Store, which is down as of 12 A.M. Eastern. We’re not aware of any upcoming products, and the store being down on any day other than Tuesday usually points to maintenance rather than new stuff. That said, we’ll keep an eye on it and update if we see anything new when the store comes back up.

As usual, thanks to everyone who tipped us off.

Update: After roughly three hours of downtime, the store is back up with no obvious changes. Looks like it was just a maintenance update after all.

TUAWThe Apple Store is down… and back up, with no apparent changes originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 19 Aug 2010 00:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AppleStore – Unofficial Apple Weblog – Apple – Macintosh – IPad

At GDC Europe earlier this week, Bigpoint CEO Heiko Hubertz claimed that the iPhone app market “has already crashed. You cannot sell your game for 99 cents and expect a return.” Apple has said that developers are collectively making more than a billion dollars on the App Store, but Hubertz knocks that figure down a few notches, suggesting that because there are over 250,000 actual apps on the store, no one developer is making enough to cover the development costs of any game worth making.

Is he right? In a sense, he is — it’s already pretty clear that for a number of reasons, prices have raced to the bottom on the App Store. And while the audience is still growing (people are buying more and more iPhones every day), so is the pool of developers and apps. While there are definitely some runaway hits, the average developer isn’t going to see profits that will keep an EA-level game afloat.

That said, the market certainly hasn’t “crashed.” Apple wanted an app ecosystem that anyone with a Mac and some knowledge and time could join, and that’s what they’ve got — a developer who puts a worthy amount of time and talent into an app, with some help and promotion from sites like ours, can likely turn over a profit, if not make a good amount of money. Sure, the App Store’s not very friendly to big budget producers, but that’s probably not what Apple wanted in the first place anyway.

TUAWHas the iPhone App Market already crashed? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 18 Aug 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AppStore – Apple – Unofficial Apple Weblog – IPhone – Macintosh

The iPhone Spy Stick can be used to snoop information that is stored on a user’s iPhone (even deleted data), within limitations. The ill-intentioned will want to keep reading.

The way that it works sounds simple (we haven’t played with one yet). Just connect the stick and the target iPhone to a computer and run the included software, which pulls all sorts of data from the phone. You’ll find deleted texts, calendar events, photos, and contact information. It’ll also find recent map searches, locations tracked via GPS, Web history, and voice memos.

Are you scared yet? Don’t be. In order to work, the iPhone Spy Stick requires a Windows machine (Windows XP, Vista, or 7 only) and an iPhone that is running iOS 3.2.1 (and earlier). In other words, you can’t run it on any iPhone from any machine. That’s still some hard core snooping, though.

I love that the manufacturer boasts that the device “Looks like an ordinary USB flash drive – no one will suspect that it’s a professional grade forensics tool.” I suppose that’s in spite of the fact that is says, “iPhone Spy Stick” in huge, black and white letters. You can get yours for US$199.

[Via Übergizmo]

TUAWSnoop iPhone data with limitations originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 18 Aug 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone – Unofficial Apple Weblog – Windows XP – Apple – Global Positioning System

[Note: While most videos on Vimeo.com would play back on iDevices prior to this update if watched on the Vimeo site, the new 'Universal Player' embed code should allow publishers and website developers to include compatible embeds on their sites. Vimeo does not provide mobile versions of every video on the site, limiting some features to Plus (paid) users. Details on making videos mobile-friendly are in the Vimeo FAQ and the new features announcement. -Ed.]

Popular video site Vimeo (think a more artsy YouTube) has changed its embed code to be completely HTML5 compatible, which means you can now browse the site completely embed videos that play back on the iPhone or the iPad. I just pulled the site up on my iPhone, and I have to say, I think it’s a smoother browsing experience than the browser itself — you just get a list of videos, and clicking on whichever one you want (like, for example, the great Dennis Liu music video above) opens it right up in Quicktime. Good deal. Vimeo’s been flirting with HTML5 for the better part of this year, but this switchover means everything (including embeds when seen from an iPhone or iPad) is available in HTML5 from the start – bye bye Flash. [Flash will still be served to desktop browsers. -Ed.]

The new update also adds a “Watch Later” feature to accounts on the site, so you can save videos and pull them back up on the device of your choice, even if you’re not using something that works well. Eventually, the Watch Later feature will be added in to the Vimeo API, and there’s also a new Vimeo channel available on Roku set-top boxes if you’ve got one of those.

But the HTML5 change is the biggest one — one more site leaves the Flash-only fold and becomes extremely accessible to Apple’s platform.

TUAWVimeo embeds now working on iPad, iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 17 Aug 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone – YouTube – Vimeo – Apple – HTML5

There have been a lot of console adaptations brought to the iPhone, but sending games the other way hasn’t been as common. Firemint is changing that, however — they’ve announced that they’ll be bringing iPhone superhit Flight Control to the PlayStation 3 as a downloadable title, and the game will even support the new Move controller, so you’ll be able to draw flight paths in the air with a motion control wand (or you can use a regular dual stick controller if you’d rather do that). The game will also bring 1080p support, as well as a four-player drop-in/out mode and an exclusive map named “Metropolis.” Flight Control HD will be available on the PSN on September 15th.

I’d be interested to see some other iPhone-specific titles make the jump to major consoles as well — with the onset of Kinect and Move, translating the iPhone’s touch controls to the television should get a little easier. We’ll likely see a few more big iPhone titles (Angry Birds? Doodle Jump?) head across from Apple’s platforms to more traditional gaming outlets in the future.

TUAWFlight Control coming to PS3 on September 15 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 16 Aug 2010 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone – Flight Control – PlayStation 3 – Unofficial Apple Weblog – Firemint

JM Family — an $8 billion diversified automotivate company and the largest Toyota distributor on the planet — has integrated iPhone and business apps available in the App Store into all of their daily operations. The company has also created a custom app that enables their sales organization to quickly track, review, and update dealership numbers.

As a bona fide fan of cruise ships and iPads, I was happy to see a short note from CruiseInd.com today outlining what Celebrity Cruises is doing with the iPad on their Solstice Class ships.

Starting tomorrow (August 15th), iPads will be available on the Celebrity Solstice, and the sister ships Eclipse and Equinox will see a group of iPads on board starting August 21st. Guests can launch a custom app to be able to view the collection of art on their particular ship. The Solstice class ships currently in service, Solstice, Equinox, and Eclipse, have a total of 14,000 original contemporary art works between them that decorate the various decks. Deck plans are displayed on the iPad, and guest can touch artworks represented on the plans to see the exact location, title, artist’s name, medium, a description, and an image of the work.

This isn’t the first time that iPads have been used on Celebrity’s ships — the cruise line uses the devices to display the menu and wine list at the Qsine specialty restaurant on the Celebrity Eclipse. Celebrity also features the Mac-centric iLearn program on the Celebrity Solstice, Equinox, and Summit, a series of classes that mimic the One-to-One experience available in Apple retail stores.

It’s refreshing to see Celebrity embracing Apple technology on their ships, as most other cruise ships seem to feature old PCs running Windows XP in their Internet lounges.

TUAWThe iPad as an art gallery tour guide on Celebrity Cruises originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 14 Aug 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Celebrity Cruise – Celebrity Solstice – Unofficial Apple Weblog – CelebrityEclipse – Apple

We posted about Times way back in April of last year. Back then, it was an RSS reader for Mac that organized your feeds into a newspaper-style page, so you could quickly and easily scan and browse a lot of information. Nowadays, of course, the iPad is one of the main devices for consumption of online content, and the team at Acrylic has finally brought that reader over to Apple’s tablet (and the 2.0 Mac version is due out soon as well). It doesn’t hurt, I’m sure, that apps like Flipboard have made it cool to consume RSS content in a programmatically designed form again.

Times is pretty smooth, as you can see on the website. It will seamlessly bring in content from all of your feeds, as well as Facebook and Twitter, and organize them all in an easy to read newspaper/blog format. Unfortunately, it doesn’t sync up with the Mac version (or any other readers that you may already have set up), so you’ll probably have to rebuild whatever group of feeds you’re already reading. And personally, I have the same problem with this that I have with all of these “nice” feed readers; it’s cool to see your feeds all prettied up and formatted, but sometimes I just want to make sure that I see important news or hit a certain site first.

But that’s not the kind of reading you’d do with an app like this anyway. (Since I write for TUAW, a lot of my RSS reading is systematically combing for interesting stories and posts.) As a simple iPad reader that makes multiple feeds pretty and easy to read, Times for iPad is worth checking out if you haven’t landed on a good solution yet. It’s US $7.99 on the App Store right now.

TUAWTUAW’s Daily App: Times for iPad originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 13 Aug 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Unofficial Apple Weblog – AppStore – Apple – Facebook – IPad

Released back in April, Chaos Rings for the iPhone became a runaway hit and a top seller soon after its debut on the App Store. Reviewers praised the title from Square Enix, and many of them felt that the US$12.99 iPhone title could easily have been a successful game on the Nintendo DS or Sony’s PSP at more than twice the price.

Square Enix promised that the game would be coming to the iPad, and it has delivered on that promise. Chaos Rings for iPad has just debuted and is now available for $15.99 on the US App Store. As far as we can tell from the screen shots, it’s essentially the same game as the iPhone version, but the resolution is bumped up to the iPad’s 1024 x 768, which allows for crisper details and a less cramped UI.

To celebrate the launch of Chaos Rings for iPad, Square Enix has reduced the price of all of its App Store games for the next two weeks. Chaos Rings for iPhone, for example, has gone from $12.99 to $9.99. Final Fantasy I has gone from US$8.99 to $6.99, and Song Summoner: The Unsung Heroes has been deeply discounted from US$9.99 to $4.99. Square Enix’s games tend to be higher-priced than most others on the App Store (and deservedly so, given the quality of its titles), so if you’ve been holding off on checking out some of these titles because of pricing, now’s the time to jump in.

TUAWChaos Rings comes to iPad – all Square Enix games on sale originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 12 Aug 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Square Enix – IPhone – AppStore – Unofficial Apple Weblog – Nintendo DS

One of the best things about Mac OS X is its built-in support for PDF files. Instead of testing your sanity while you wait (sometimes it can seem like forever) for Adobe Acrobat to open a PDF file, you can use Preview.app to open them up quickly. However, built-in PDF support allows you to do other neat things as well. Here are five of my favorites.

Print
At the top of the list is the ability to create a PDF from almost any document. Whether it’s a Word or Pages document, a spreadsheet, or a Web page, in most instances you’ll be able to create PDFs out of them. Many Windows users print to a PDF printer in order to create a PDF file, and in a similar manner, creating PDFs on Mac OS X involves selecting the print option from the app that you’re working in. Within the app, click on “File” and then select “Print.” Then, you’ll be presented with a dialog box with a “PDF” button on the left. Click on this button and select “Save as PDF.”

Annotate
Once you’ve created your PDF, you can annotate it. Open up your PDF in Preview.app, click on “View,” and select “Show Annotations Toolbar.” After doing so, a toolbar will appear on the bottom left of your document. Alternatively, the toolbar will also be displayed if you select any of the annotate options under the “Tools” menu. Annotations include the ability to create text boxes (useful for filling out forms), add notes, or highlight and create shapes (among other things).

Rearrange
You can also move pages around within Preview.app (like rearranging the songs in an iTunes playlist). Simply choose “Contact sheet” or “Thumbnail” view from the sidebar, and then drag and drop your pages as you see fit.

Bookmarks
Let’s say that a couple of pages within a PDF interest you, and you want to revisit them later. To do this, click on “Bookmarks” in Preview.app and select “Add Bookmark” (or use the Cmd+D shortcut). One of the neat things about this feature is that, even if your PDF isn’t open, you can still access your bookmarks.

Crop
I’ve made no secret about my fondness of Preview.app’s image editing ability, and this extends to PDFs as well. One neat image editing feature for PDFs is the ability to select an area and create a new image based on this selection. To do this in the PDF, click on the “Select” tool, select an area, and copy it. Then, in Preview.app, click on “File,” select “New from clipboard,” and voila, your selection is in a new document. This document can be saved in a variety of formats, including PDF, JPG, and PNG.

PDF parsing and rendering are core features of Mac OS X and iOS. While providing for native support for PDF files, it also served as the foundation for the recently released Web-based jailbreak for the iPhone.

TUAWMac 101: Five tips for working with PDF files in Mac OS X originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 12 Aug 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Adobe Acrobat – iPhone – PDF – Portable Document Format – Mac OS X

Here’s a useful tool for developers who want to sketch out UI ideas for iPhone apps. These clever Post-It Notes from Apps-on and 3M have a 20 pixel grid on the drawing surface, and feature the exact dimensions of the iPhone 4. So, you can draw your ideas in a perfect 1:1 scale. There are 50 sheets per pad, so don’t be afraid to toss bad ideas into the trash.

They’re available in three packs: the Starter offers 5 pads for US$20, the Pro offers 10 for $35 and finally you can get 20 pads for $59 by choosing the Master pack. Heck, I’m not a developer but I’d use them as plain old Post-Its!

This isn’t the first example of this type of thing that we’ve seen. Notepod+ is a similar sketchpad aimed at iPad developers, and the folks at Design Commission have produced a stencil that lets you add all sorts of UI elements to your sketches. If any of these suit your fancy, have at it and get sketching!

[Via Total Apps]

TUAWiPhone Post It Notes take your Apple love analog originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 11 Aug 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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IPhone – Unofficial Apple Weblog – Apple – IPad – Handhelds

Within the last few minutes, iOS 4.0.2 for iPhone 3G, 3GS, 4, and iPod touch 2nd and 3rd generation (late 2009 models with 32 or 64 GB) has become available for download. In addition, the iPad has received an update to iOS 3.2.2.

The updates fix a security vulnerability that was associated with viewing malicious PDF files. It doesn’t appear that there are any fixes to any other issues (i.e., the proximity sensor glitch), but the fix to the PDF exploit insures that the iOS platform remains secure.

For a security fix, the update is huge — the iPhone update is 580MB in size and the iPad update is 457MB. For a look at more detailed information about what the updates patch, check out the iOS 4.0.2 Update description and the iOS 3.2.2 Update description on Apple’s website.

TUAWiOS 4.0.2 for iPhone/iPod touch, iOS 3.2.2 updates available now originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 11 Aug 2010 15:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone – Apple – Unofficial Apple Weblog – IPod Touch – IPad

I’ve been a huge fan of social dating site OkCupid’s OkTrends blog for a while now. They’re constantly sharing data (anonymized, of course) from their social site about what people find attractive and interesting in each other. The latest post has some fun information about cameras — specifically, the perceived link between what type of camera OkCupid’s patrons use and successful relationships. All of the data is fascinating (as usual), but there’s one little note of potential interest to iPhone fans.

Apparently, when compared to users who post pictures from other smartphone brands, users who reported using iPhones for their profile pictures tend to identify more sexual partners over all. As you can see in the chart above, male and female iPhone users (at age 30) report higher numbers of sexual partners to OkCupid.

In fact, across all ages, iPhone users reported having more sexual partners than those who used Android or Blackberry smartphones to take their profile pictures. Of course, OkCupid is just having fun here. Maybe iPhone users are actually more inclined to lie about their amorous conquests, or maybe there’s a higher likelihood that Android or Blackberry users have reason to report a lower number.

But then again, we already know that iPhone owners tend to be rich, engage in vigorous activity, and like to be outspoken about their buying choices and preferences. And aren’t those the kind of people who end up going home with the girl (or guy) from the bar anyway?

TUAWOkCupid: iPhone users have more sex originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 11 Aug 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Blackberry – Smartphone – Android – OkCupid – IPhone

The Los Angeles Times reports that Apple’s iAd mobile advertising platform is “getting favorable reviews from the companies whose advertisements were the first to run on the new system.” The article quotes Joe Jacoby, a senior manager of Nissan’s media operations, who says, “What iAd promises is the most progressive thing I’ve seen to date” in digital advertising.

PC Magazine makes the new quad-core 27-inch iMac an Editors’ Choice, calling it “a highly sophisticated, yet simple to use media PC.” The magazine found the new iMac to be faster than other all-in-one models they’ve recently tested and concludes that it “cements the Apple iMac as the all-in-one desktop to have and to beat.”

One of the first iPad applications, USA TODAY (free), has been updated to version 1.5, which adds the long-awaited crossword puzzle and customizable market and stock information.

I’ve been waiting for the crossword puzzle to go live for a long time, and now that it’s here I’m not disappointed. You’ll find it in the app’s Life section. Give it a tap and the day’s current puzzle appears. It looks good in both landscape and portrait orientation, but I prefer landscape (at right).

The puzzle grid is in the center of the screen, flanked on either side by the down and across clues. To enter an answer, tap the beginning square once for across and twice for down. The row or column you’re working on will be highlighted in purple.

At the top of the screen you’ll find a hints button and an archive of the previous two weeks worth of puzzles. There’s also a timer for those who like to see how quickly they can finish. Finally, the settings let you hide or display the timer, show your mistakes (there’s no eraser with the iPad!) and skip filled squares.

I’ve always enjoyed newspaper crossword puzzles, and it’s nice to see one migrate to the iPad so successfully.

Additionally, customizable stock information has been added to the app’s money section. Tap the Markets box to pop that section out. You can quickly search for a company you’re interested in or tap Edit Stocks to re-order the market listings or add and remove particular companies. The next time the app is launched, it will remember your settings.

Version 1.5 is a nice update to an app I’ve used consistently since buying my iPad. Let us say, “Well done” to everyone on USA TODAY’s iPad team.

TUAWUSA TODAY for iPad adds crossword, stocks originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 10 Aug 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Crossword – Puzzle – USA TODAY – Games – Unofficial Apple Weblog

Editor Bradley Buecker describes how he cut his first feature film, Eat Pray Love, using Final Cut Pro. To edit more than 70 hours of footage shot on location in New York, Italy, India, and Indonesia, Buecker found a fast, efficient editing format in ProRes 422 (Proxy), introduced in Final Cut Pro 7.

We’ve spotlighted a few different Xbox Live browsers here on the site before, so here’s a little console balance. PSN Go is an app designed to let you browse and control your PlayStation Network account (the account that you set up when you’ve got a PS3 connected to the Internet). It’s unofficial (not created by Sony) and made by a third party, but you can log in with a PSN name and password and browse through your friend lists, gamer profile, trophy lists, and other PSN information.

Unfortunately, unlike most of the other “account browser” apps that we’ve seen, this one is priced a little higher than free — it’s US $1.99. While that’s still not a lot, it is quite a bit to pay for just the opportunity to browse friends’ lists when away from your console. Still, the app has a full in-app game database, and it’s pretty well polished and runs great. Plus, it’s getting updated; it’s all set for the iPhone 4′s Retina Display, and it’s seen a few UI improvements and bug fixes already. If you find yourself browsing your PSN account quite a bit (especially when not at home), it’s probably worth the couple bucks.

TUAWTUAW’s Daily App: PSN Go originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 09 Aug 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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IPhone – Unofficial Apple Weblog – Apple – Sony – PlayStation Network

SF Weekly profiles a Redwood City mother, Shannon Rosa, who blogged that iPad had helped her nine-year-old autistic son, Leo. “With the iPad, Leo electrifies the air around him with independence and daily new skills,” she wrote. The article credits Rosa’s post with contributing to a “quiet revolution” in the autistic community focused on using iPad for teaching communication and social skills to autistic children.

The San Jose Mercury News reviewer Troy Wolverton gives Magic Trackpad a 4.5/5 rating, calling it a “winner” and noting that it “could give other desktop users a good reason to finally ditch their mice.” He concludes, “I like the Magic Trackpad a lot and hope it will spark imitators on the PC side.”

An ad posted to Craigslist yesterday is from an open-minded sort of guy who wants a roommate for an apartment in Soho. Sounds typical, right? Here’s the catch: He insists that prospective roommates not have an iPhone or an iPad.

The ad states that “I refuse to live with anyone that has sold their immortal soul to Steve Jobs.” He’s also looking for a guy with Starcraft II experience, and wants any potential live-ins to post a link to their battle.net profile and to prove to him that they don’t own an iPhone.

The New York Observer found the guy, Vince Thomas, and he said he currently lives with another fellow who is a Mac fan, and Vince says he “just can’t take it anymore.” Vince has a Droid phone from Motorola, and apparently he’d rather talk about that instead.

Vince has a point. Some of us love our iPhones. In social situations I don’t bring it up unless someone asks. I’m even feeling a bit guilty about the ‘Sent from my iPhone’ tag on my mail. If I write Vince I’ll be sure to change it to ‘Sent from my wonderful Droid, which is so much better than the iPhone I ditched.’

On the other hand, I’ve been around a few Droid owners, and let me tell you, that’s no picnic either. Good luck Vince. May you find a roommate just like you.

[Via The New York Observer]

TUAWGuy moving to New York wants a roomie who doesn’t have an iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 06 Aug 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone – Steve Jobs – Apple – Craigslist – Motorola

You kinda knew it was going to happen. Earlier this week the app store approved MiTube, a YouTube app that allowed you to both view and download videos. Sounded like a great idea, and the app was free, but YouTube is not exactly a downloading service, and the clock had to be ticking on the viability of MiTube.

Kerplonk! It’s gone. Getting the app yanked is not a big surprise. How it ever got in the app store is a bigger question. Just a couple of weeks ago HandyLight was pulled. It looked like a flashlight app, but in fact it had hidden features that allowed you to tether an iPad or a laptop to your iPhone and share your 3G signal. Apple approved it, then pulled it when the word got out of what the app really did.

Apple has every right to control the app store, but these approvals followed by a quick yank are sort of embarrassing.

By the way, if your iPhone is jailbroken there is always MXTube,

[Via iLounge]

TUAWMiTube app flies high but is quickly shot down originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 05 Aug 2010 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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YouTube – Apple – iPhone – App Store – Unofficial Apple Weblog

According to the University of Virginia’s Information Technology and Communication (ITC), which services the IT needs for most of the campus, 43 percent of first-year students at its residence halls during 2009 were using a Mac.

The figure represents a continuation of a five-year trend that’s seeing increased Mac penetration on the campus amongst first year students. Prior to 2004, Mac usage amongst freshmen hovered between three and four percent (with the exception of 1997). 2004, however, served as a watershed year: share increased by four percentage points. A host of theories can help explain this jump. I’d probably point to the release of iTunes on Windows in 2003. While the iPod and the “halo effect” surrounding it had existed for three years, up until 2003 only Mac users were able to fully experience the benefits of hardware and software integration. Or, perhaps it was partly due to the fact that OS X-only Macs began making their way into the market during 2003.

Other significant events that occurred throughout the years include the release of the iPod nano (2005), Intel-based Macs (2006), and the iPhone (2007). But perhaps as influential as anything else during this time frame is the “Get a Mac” campaign. The “I’m a Mac” and “I’m a PC” ads highlighted the benefits of a Mac and contrasted them with the downsides of owning a PC — i.e., security issues, performance and lifestyle apps.

Data for the University of Virginia ITC is collected by the group’s student employees, known as Computing Advisors (CAs), a group of first-year students hired to advise and assist their peers with computing. The data is based on a census of first-year residence halls each fall conducted by the CAs, and can be found here.

Hat tip to Glenn Fleishman.

TUAWMac usage surges amongst University of Virginia freshmen since 2004 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 05 Aug 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple – IPhone – iPod – Unofficial Apple Weblog – University of Virginia

From iPhone app … to comic book? That’s where Pocket God is apparently headed. The extremely popular iPhone app has “inked” a deal to release a set of comics based on the little islanders. The books will be available on the App Store first, in virtual form, and they will eventually take the form of paper comics. There’s an iPad app available now (for 99 cents) that features the adventures of Ooga, Noobie, Klik, and friends. (Wait, they have names? Now I feel bad about tossing them into that volcano.) The physical books, which will be released in September, will have four-page stories that can’t be seen anywhere else.

It’s crazy to think that Apple’s little software store has spawned a full-fledged franchise, and this isn’t the last we’ll see. TUAW has heard, off the record, that at least one other major iPhone app property is putting together a very large licensing deal, which (if it works) will bring a very popular App Store brand to more traditional media. We’ve seen lots of instances of major brands coming into the App Store, but some original properties on the iPhone and iPad are growing up into a life of their own.

TUAWPocket God comics out now for iPad, coming soon to stores originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 05 Aug 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone – AppStore – Unofficial Apple Weblog – Apple – IPad

Earlier today, iLounge reported on a few tidbits of leaked info regarding the next batch of iPods (due in September), as well as details on a possible “iPad mini” and iPhone 5. iLounge has given out very accurate information in the past, so it’s likely that at least some of their info is spot-on. Here’s their leaked info, presented roughly in order of how likely it is to be true:

1. A new iPod nano and iPod touch will debut within the next couple of months. This one is a no-brainer; Apple’s been holding annual September refreshes of its iPod line as far back as I can remember. The iPod shuffle is also due for an update, with iLounge claiming the device will come with a 1.7″ touchscreen display. The current shuffle has no controls on its body at all, with all input coming from its included headphones’ buttons, so even a touchscreen barely bigger than a postage stamp would be a welcome improvement. Notably, there’s no info offered on the iPod classic — many people believe the iPod classic will be retired this year.

2. Apple will redesign its bumper cases to an all-silicon design to reduce the cost of its free bumpers for iPhone 4 program. This is probably the impetus behind Apple’s insistence that current iPhone 4 owners must apply for a free case before September 30.

TUAWiLounge leaks details on next-gen iPods, iPhone, iPad originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 04 Aug 2010 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone – Unofficial Apple Weblog – Apple – IPod – IPod Touch