Iphone Updates

iPhone OS 3.0 Software Update

This update contains over 100 new features, including the following:

• Cut, Copy & Paste with shake to undo
• Landscape keyboard in key applications
• Enhanced Messages application
– Send and receive photos, contacts, audio files, and location via MMS*
– Forward and delete single or multiple messages
• Added search feature in Mail, Calendar, Notes and iPod
• Spotlight search across iPhone
• Support for CalDAV and subscriptions in Calendar
• Improvements to Safari
– Performance
– HTML 5 support
– HTTP Streaming audio and video
– Auto-fill usernames and passwords
• New Voice Memos application
• Sync Notes with a Mac or PC via iTunes
• Internet Tethering over USB and Bluetooth*
• Browse and download movies, TV shows, and audiobooks from the iTunes Store**
• Stereo Bluetooth***
• Wi-Fi auto login
• Enhanced Stocks application
• More Parental Control options for Apps, Music, Movies and TV Shows
• iTunes account creation and login**
• YouTube account login and access to subscriptions, ratings and favorites**
• Shake to shuffle
• New languages, dictionaries, and keyboards
• Find my iPhone and Remote Wipe via MobileMe (subscription required)**
• Support for more Exchange policies
• Create and send Exchange meeting invitations
• Search mail on server (Exchange Server 2007 and supported IMAP servers)
• Search LDAP company directory
• VPN on demand and VPN proxy support
• Encrypted configuration profiles
• Encrypted iTunes backups
• 1,000 new developer APIs, including:
– In App Purchases
– Apple Push Notification Service
– Accessories support
– Peer to Peer Connectivity
– Embedded Maps
– iPod Library Access
• Bug fixes

Products compatible with this software update:
• iPhone
• iPhone 3G
• iPhone 3G S

* Compatible only with iPhone 3G and iPhone 3G S and requires support from your wireless provider.
** Not available in all regions or in all languages.
*** Compatible only with iPhone 3G and iPhone 3G S.

Tags:firmware functionalities iphone 3.0firmware, functionalities, iphone 3.0

In his review of iPhone 3G S, analyst Michael Gartenberg (gartenblog.net) says that the latest iPhone model “raises the bar for smartphone features and performance,” calling it the “best performing phone I have ever used.” From its “greater memory capacity” to its improved battery life, the iPhone 3G S takes “the platform to the next level,” he says, “delivering a powerful updated experience” that “once again sets the standard for the competition.”

Use the new iPhone 3G S, and the “speed boost hits you between the eyes,” reports David Pogue (nytimes.com). And Pogue ticks off all the other new features that make the “substantially improved, still elegant iPhone 3G S” even harder to resist: a 3-megapixel camera, voice-control features, “sharp, smooth, 30-frames-a-second” video recording, a built-in Compass, an oleophobic screen, and a “better, beefier battery.”

Apple has released the latest version of its iPhone operating system: version 3.0. It’s now available to download via iTunes. Assuming you have a legitimate (non jailbroken) iPhone, connect it via USB to iTunes, then click on “Check for Updates” (if it doesn’t automatically do so). You’ll get a series of screenshots as follows (Windows version will look slightly different): Click “Download and Install” to get straight on with the installation and update the iPhone:

The new iPhone 3G S “proved dramatically snappier in every way than my iPhone 3G,” says Walt Mossberg (wsg.com). “Applications opened much more quickly. Web pages loaded far faster. The camera was ready to use almost instantly.” And Mossberg commends its battery life, video recording, and new voice control features, saying that the “new iPhone and iPhone OS are packed with features that make a great product even better.”

Got At Bat on your iPhone or iPod touch? Then, starting tomorrow, you’ll be able to watch up to two Major League Baseball games a day, streamed live to your iPhone. “The video will play,” says Brad Stone (nytimes.com), whether your iPhone “is connected to a WiFi network or a 3G network.” And, thanks to the DVR features in At Bat, if the boss comes around the corner, you can pause the action and resume play when the coast’s clear.

“Awesome” — it’s a word you hear a lot from fans of Monster Pinball. Designed specifically for iPhone and iPod touch, Monster Pinball offers stunning graphics, zany sound effects, automatic table switching, high scoring, fast action, and hours of fun. Ready to become a pinball wizard?

Filed under: Software, WWDC, Developer, iPhone

Victor and I met Andrew Stone about an hour after the latest version of his iPhone Twitter client, Twittelator Pro, hit the App Store. He gave us a quick — and very animated — demonstration of some of the new features while we were at the Macworld party.

Update: This video has been moved to YouTube and is now watchable.

Continue reading WWDC Live: Andrew Stone, Twittelator Pro

TUAWWWDC Live: Andrew Stone, Twittelator Pro originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 13 Jun 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Internet

Last year, after years of planning, my wife and I left the United States and moved to New Zealand. Moving to the other side of the world has meant adjusting to an entirely different geography and culture. Driving on the left, the “reversed” seasons, the completely unfamiliar constellations and upside-down face of the moon, and having everything expressed in metric are ever-present reminders of just how much life has changed for us since leaving the U.S.

Another thing that’s changed is our internet situation, and some of the changes have been big enough that it’s profoundly affected our computing habits.

In the U.S. we had a fairly decent internet connection, especially for the Cleveland market: a 5 Mbps download speed, 768 Kbps upload, all delivered over the same cable line that delivered our television service. That internet connection, plus basic cable and a DVR, cost us a little over US$100 per month.

In New Zealand, the broadband landscape is completely different, and it’s forced us to completely adjust our usage patterns.

According to a recent Norton Online Living Report (links to NZ Herald) commissioned by Symantec, New Zealanders spend an average of only 12.7 hours online per week, compared to a global average of 23.6 hours. Analysts are unsure why New Zealand lags so much in internet usage compared to the rest of the developed world, but after nearly a year of sampling the best they have to offer down here, I’m not at all surprised.

Continue reading Worldwide Mac: getting online in New Zealand

TUAWWorldwide Mac: getting online in New Zealand originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 13 Jun 2009 01:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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To demonstrate the many ways you can take advantage of Bento 2, FileMaker today announced the Bento Template Exchange. The program offers customers an easy way to share their Bento templates — or to download and use templates developed by other Bento users. Fully customizable, the templates can be used with a free trial version of Bento and with Bento for iPhone and iPod touch.

Filed under: Accessories, Odds and ends, iPhone, Graphic Design, iPod touch

The iPhone is designed to work with your fingers, but those stubby appendages aren’t the best for doing detailed work. That’s why Ten One Design developed the Pogo Stylus (US$14.95), an aluminum stylus with a special tip that allows it to work on the capacitive display of the iPhone and iPod touch. It’s also handy for operating your iPhone with gloves on, or for anyone who has trouble working with the touchscreen directly.

Ten One Design is holding an art contest through July 1st, 2009. The rules are simple; you must use a Pogo Stylus to create a work of art on an iPhone or iPod touch. You can use whatever software you desire, although most of the artwork seen below was created with the help of Brushes [App Store]. The winner will have $500 paid to his or her PayPal account.

What are you waiting for? Get your Pogo Stylus and get to work!

TUAWiPhone artists: paint your way to $500 in the Pogo Stylus art contest originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 11 Jun 2009 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you already own an iPhone or iPhone 3G and want to know if it’s worth upgrading, check out this features comparison. If you don’t own an iPhone but are tempted by Apple’s latest offering, the iPhone 3G S, read on to see if it’s worth switching.

iPhone 3G S main features

At a glance, the iPhone 3G S’s main features are:

• Phone with visual voicemail
• Threaded (conversational) display of SMS
• MMS with video
• Full iPod music and video player
• Desktop-class email system
• Advanced Internet browser (Safari)
• A-GPS with Google Maps plus digital compass
• YouTube integration
• Huge range of third-party applications (both paid and free) available via iTunes
• 3MP camera, autofocus, VGA 30fps video recording
• 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
• Ability to add various third-party hardware via dock connection

“You won’t find a more powerful 15-inch notebook that’s this easy to carry,” reports Jeffrey L. Wilson (laptopmag.com) in his review of the new 15-inch MacBook Pro. The notebook, he says, “offers plenty of processing power and graphics muscle, as well as lengthy battery life, which makes it an outstanding system for heavy-duty content creation in the office or on the go.”

Samsung recently launched its latest touchscreen mobile phone, the i8910 HD. The title hints at one of its main features – the ability to view, shoot, and output high definition video. How does it shape up against the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3G S? Read on to find out.

Look & Feel

The Samsung i8910 HD has a look not dissimilar to the LG Viewty Smart II, with slightly more curves in the screen than the iPhone 3G/iPhone 3G S, and with physical buttons underneath the screen. The iPhone 3G and iPhone 3G S are slightly thinner and smaller than the Samsung i8910 HD, at 115.5 x 62.1 x 12.3mm versus 123 x 59 x 12.9mm. The i8910 HD is quite a heavy beast, at 671g compared to the iPhone 3G at 133g and iPhone 3G S at 135g.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Software, Odds and ends, Developer, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch

The Aurora Feint folks are at WWDC with the rest of the Mac development world this week, and while out there, not only are they having a party, but they sent out an announcement: OpenFeint 2.0 is out now, and it has some “social discovery” features now included. Their open platform already supported doing things like leaderboards and profiles from directly within iPhone applications and games, but now the new release will also allow users to bring their friends lists in from Facebook and Twitter, update profile pictures of themselves, and both find their friends and figure out what they’re playing. The system is free to integrate into iPhone apps and games, and there’s a user-based model that costs more at higher levels.

OpenFeint isn’t the only system attempting to do something like this (be a sort of Xbox Live for iPhone games), but they are certainly the biggest, with more developers jumping into their boat every day. And as is the way with social networks, sometimes being the biggest is just as good as being the best. Look for their features in an iPhone game near you.

TUAWOpenFeint 2.0 brings social discovery to the iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 11 Jun 2009 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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So you’ve got an old iPhone and you want to know if it’s worth upgrading to the iPhone 3G S? Has Apple gone the extra mile or is it a bit of a lacklustre update. Read our specs comparison of the three major iPhone models to find out if it’s worth the upgrade.

So, is it worth upgrading?…

Apple was kind enough to announce its latest iPhone in the week I chose to go on holiday, and ironically although I could have used my own iPhone to attempt to report on the highlights, the network signal was so poor that it would have been agonising. Fear not, though, for I will be making up for lost time with a full analysis of the iPhone 3GS, how it compares to the current iPhone 3G, what the new OS 3.0 looks like, how the handset stacks up against phones from other manufacturers, the controversies surrounding upgrades and tethering, and and whether it’s really worth upgrading…

Filed under: Software, WWDC, Developer

One of the first developers I got a chance to sit down with at WWDC was Dan Wood of Karelia Software, makers of the website-building app, Sandvox. I got his thoughts on the Keynote and the state of Mac software development. He’s recently been blogging about marketing for developers and working to start a conversation about self-promotion in the Indy software community. Check out the interview after the jump, and be sure to check out the developer marketing tips offered at his blog.

Continue reading WWDC Live: Dan Wood, Karelia Software

TUAWWWDC Live: Dan Wood, Karelia Software originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 10 Jun 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Desktops, Software, Apple, Snow Leopard

It’s not news. It was just less than a year ago that we initially announced that Snow Leopard would likely be Intel-only. Still, it was a report based off an initial developer’s release of the software, and PowerPC users prayed that maybe it was a mistake. Maybe Apple would change its mind and toss a bone at these faithful users of Macs-gone-by.

But, the emerging reality showed that Apple has left its PowerPC days behind. In February, we reported on how GarageBand’s new Learn to Play feature was Intel-only. In addition to that, not every feature in iPhoto was available to PowerPC users. During that same month, we reported that even more G4 systems were being added to Apple’s vintage and obsolete lists.

Now the writing is fully on the wall for PowerPC users. The official release of tech specs for Snow Leopard indicates that it is an Intel-only release, meaning that if you do want to go past Leopard, you’ll have to upgrade. There are still a lot of PowerPC users out there, and they’re still very good machines… but are owners of older Macs going to be satisfied without the latest OS?

Answer our poll or let us know in the comments: what does Snow Leopard mean to PPC owners?

View Poll

TUAWOS 10.6: PowerPC officially left behind originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 10 Jun 2009 15:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Hardware, Rumors, iPhone

As Jason Snell points out at Macworld, Apple doesn’t want people thinking of the iPhone as a computer. At least, not the way geeks like you and I do. As iPhone product marketing manager Bob Borchers told Jason, “…it’s just faster, better, quicker, snappier, and a great experience.”

Apple doesn’t want us worrying about the “how,” but many of us do, which is why we’re interested in a blurb at T Mobile’s Netherlands site which lists the iPhone 3G S as having 256MB RAM and a 600 MHz processor. Of course, we can’t verify these specs yet but some have suspected, including myself, that the new model would hold 256MB RAM.

I understand the logic behind Apple’s move. John Q. Customer is uninterested in the iPhone’s innards and cares only that it works. For many, terms like processor, RAM and MHz only make the thing sound complicated and foreign.

Geeks like us, however, can’t resist.

[Via MacDailyNews]

TUAWT Mobile shares iPhone processor, RAM specs originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 10 Jun 2009 12:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Reviewer Cisco Cheng (www.pcmag.com) gives the new 13-inch MacBook Pro a 4.5/5 Very Good rating and a Greentech Approved Seal for its green credentials. Writes Cheng: “It’s a great time to be shopping for a new Apple laptop—especially this one, which earns our Editors’ Choice.”

Apple today announced that more than 11 million copies of Safari 4 have been downloaded in the first three days of its release, including more than six million downloads of Safari for Windows. “Safari 4 is an incredible success on Mac and Windows with more than 11 million downloads in the first three days,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “Safari users love the incredible speed and innovative features like Top Sites, Full History Search and Cover Flow.”

Although Mac OS X Leopard lets you assign long file names to documents, you can’t always see the entire file name while working in Icon View. But you can have your long name and read it, too. To find out how, watch the latest Mac OS X tip in the Business Theater.

Educators in need of video material to teach students about blood vessels, coral reefs, mitochondria, and other scientific topics have a great resources available on iTunes U. It’s called Teachers’ Domain, and it contains media from such popular WGBH series as NOVA. You may start your exploration with A Night in the Coral Reef, but you’re sure to enjoy more titles from Life Sciences.

In her new romantic comedy, The Proposal, Sandra Bullock plays Maggie Tate. The workaholic editor-in-chief of a publishing company, Tate faces deportation to her native Canada. Until, that is, she convinces her assistant, Andrew Paxton (Ryan Reynolds), to pose as her fiancée. Malin Ackerman, Mary Steenburgen, and Craig T. Nelson also appear in the film, which opens June 19. Enjoy.

Filed under: WWDC, MacBook Air

It’s one of the most overlooked product refreshes of the day, but the MacBook Air still deserves some credit. Not only did the Air get a drastic price drop (specifically with the SSD model), but it also gained a few specs. The base MacBook Air now starts at $1499US with a 1.86 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB of RAM, 120GB SATA drive (runs at 4200 rpm), and NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics card. The second model, which adds a 2.13 Ghz Core 2 Duo processor and 128GB SSD drive will only run you $1799US. That’s a huge difference considering the last SSD model cost $2499 — a difference of $700!

It is also worth noting that the MBAir now comes with a USB Ethernet Adapter in the box. You can also choose a keyboard format in either: English, Western Spanish, French, or Japanese. If you have been wanting a MacBook Air, but let the price hold you back, then there’s no reason for you to complain any longer.

You can see all of the specs on the new MacBook Air models by visiting either the product page or the Apple online store.

TUAWApple updates MacBook Air originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 08 Jun 2009 21:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In the Place Stanislas, an 18th-century public square in Nancy, France, Motion and three Mac Pro computers help the design firm Spectaculaires mount extraordinary light shows each summer night. The team projects fantastical animated images on the façade of the Hôtel de Ville, and “without Motion,” says artist Clément Barré, “we never would have completed this project in time.”

Filed under: WWDC, Developer

The keynote is now complete and the full liveblog is at the link below.

http://www.tuaw.com/2009/06/08/wwdc-2009-keynote-meta-liveblog/

Continue reading WWDC 2009 Keynote meta-liveblog

TUAWWWDC 2009 Keynote meta-liveblog originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 08 Jun 2009 12:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tom Yager (www.infoworld.com) writes that the “Nehalem Xserve is a market-leading system now” and “very likely the fastest, most energy-efficient, and most cost-effective dual-socket 1U rack server on the market,” noting that it “adds performance to the list of Xserve’s leadership criteria.” The solid-state drive is recommended as an option that can “greatly reduce power consumption” and make the system load kernel and apps “lightning fast.”

Filed under: iPod Family, Tips and tricks, iPhone

Dear Auntie TUAW,

I was driving home from an appointment today with my brother, and at a stop light, I noticed that instead of the Edge “E”, I had this little blue dot. I just assumed that it was where i had connected to WiFi and had no bars, but it was much too big and centered.

My brother, who also has an iPhone, pulled his out to find that we both had the little dot. They are both first Gen iPhones, his 4GB, mine 8GB. I did not know what this meant, but being the Apple nerd I am, I figure I would have heard something of this dot before now.

Do you know what it is? Could it have something to do with 3.0 coming out soon as expected? Thanks, And I look forward to hearing what you think.

With love from your nephew,

Andrew Dixon

Andrew, sweetheart,

Speaking of the iPhone, are you including enough roughage in your diet? Now that I’m entering onto what we oldsters can only term our “tender years,” I’ve grown to realize that bulk, bulk, bulk is the key to world happiness. Fiber is health; health, fiber. That is what we know at TUAW, and all ye need to know for better digestive function.

As for your question, that little blue circle means you youngsters were connected to a GPRS network, aka General Packet Radio Service. When the iPhone first debuted, it displayed the EDGE “E” when connected to GPRS. This made pedants cry. Newer firmware versions show this blue circle instead. As noted below, GPRS is quite a bit slower than either EDGE or 3G.

To check this icon out for yourself, you can browse through your iPhone files using sftp (on a jailbroken iPhone) or iBrowser (for iPhones with the developer deployment). The EDGE and GPRS icons live in /System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app and are named FSO_EDGE_ON.png and FSO_GPRS_ON.png. You’ll need to convert the compressed iPhone-style png images to Mac compatible ones using a utility like fixpng.

Send my love to your brother and don’t forget to wear a scarf to keep your neck warm!

Love and hugs,

Auntie T.

TUAWDear Auntie TUAW: What’s that little dot in the iPhone’s status bar? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 05 Jun 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tags:3GS guided tour iphone iphone 3gs3GS, guided tour, iphone, iphone 3gs

Multiple Academy Award–winning filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola brings a new film to theaters on June 11. It’s his first original screenplay since The Conversation and his most personal film to date. Tetro, stars Vincent Gallo, Alden Ehrenreich, and Maribel Verdú in a film that follows 17-year old Bennie (Ehrenreich) to Buenos Aires, where he searches for his older brother Tetro (Gallo) and the secrets that have separated them.

You’re so used to paying bills, getting your news and weather, and doing more and more of your purchasing online, you probably think the Internet has been around forever. But it hasn’t. As you’ll learn from this program on Open University, the Internet turns 40 this year. How did it get started? Where is it taking us next? Find out by listening to these Internet pioneers on iTunes U.

Filed under: iLife, Software Update

Apple just released some updates for iLife ’09 via Software Update. In a very un-Apple fashion, the release notes are actually sort of descriptive!

Here’s the breakdown:

• iLife Support — this is for iLife ’09, iWork ’09 and Aperture 2 users and it addresses some memory leaks, custom folder issues with Media Browser and maintaining the correct image date when importing from iPhoto to Aperture.
• iDVD gets an update to fix an issue where iDVD is unable to add a title/comment to an image. Recommended for all iDVD 7 users.
• iMovie now supports 720p AVCHD Lite cameras and camcorders and some other issues.
• iPhoto — some fixes to publishing to MobileMe, Flickr and Facebook, slideshow playback and location GPS in emailed and exported JPEGs See http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3532
• Digital Camera RAW update — RAW support for iPhoto ’08, iPhoto ’09 and Aperture 2 for various Canon, Nikon and Olympus cameras.

This all looks like good stuff. I’m off to install/restart. Head to Software Update on your computer or hit up Apple Downloads to get the individual installers.

TUAWiLife ’09 gets the Software Update treatment originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 04 Jun 2009 18:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Rumors, iPhone

Further fueling the iPhone fire (try saying that one five times fast), TUAW has received an anonymous tip stating that AT&T’s support website will be updated with “iPhone Video” as one of the model choices when choosing Apple as the phone manufacturer.

While I only see the original iPhone and 3G choices on the support site now, it stands to reason that this photo may have been taken from a screen showing unpublished support content. Click the image for the full-res photo.

This adds to some already interesting news, reported earlier by AppleInsider, that new model placeholders have begun appearing in inventory for Carphone Warehouse, a retailer that resells the iPhone. These models were labeled with a “V3″, which could simply mean Version 3, or the V may also stand for “Video” or “Video 3G”. Other retailers have also recently reported additional entries or placeholders showing up in their inventories, and many carriers have also received end of life notices for the current 3G models.

So even if a new model isn’t announced at WWDC, it’s a pretty safe bet that Apple has something in the pipeline.

TUAWRumor: New iPhone to be called “iPhone Video?” originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 04 Jun 2009 17:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple today introduced the new iPhone 3G S, featuring improved speed and performance—up to twice as fast as iPhone 3G—longer battery life, a high-quality 3 megapixel autofocus camera, easy to use video recording and hands free voice control. iPhone 3G S includes the new iPhone OS 3.0, with over 100 new features such as Cut, Copy and Paste, MMS, Spotlight Search, landscape keyboard and a new Find My iPhone feature that works together with MobileMe to help you locate a lost iPhone.

Finally we’ve got a new phone from Apple, with great new features, here is a snapshot:

– 3 Megapixels camera with video recording and editing
– Voice control
– Compass
– Better autonomy
– Copy paste of course with the 3.0 Firmware (available for download on the 17th June)
– MMS
– Search in all applications centralized
– iPhone as a modem, finally…
– Find my iPhone, in case it is lost or stolen (could be useful)
– Buy or rent movies straight on the iPhone, not for me…
– TomTom incar navigation, good good news

Tags:compass iphone 3gs modem movies tomtom voicecompass, iphone 3gs, modem, movies, tomtom, voice

Today Apple updated the aluminum unibody MacBook Pro line to include 13-inch, 15-inch and 17-inch models featuring Apple’s innovative built-in battery for up to 40 percent longer battery life. Each MacBook Pro includes an LED-backlit display with greater color intensity, the innovative glass Multi-Touch trackpad, an illuminated keyboard, an SD card or ExpressCard slot, a FireWire 800 port and state of the art NVIDIA graphics. Apple also updated the incredibly thin and light MacBook Air, making it more powerful and more affordable.

Apple today unveiled Mac OS X Snow Leopard, an even more powerful and refined version of the world’s most advanced operating system that includes hundreds of refinements, new core technologies, out of the box support for Microsoft Exchange and new accessibility features. Snow Leopard will ship as an upgrade for Mac OS X Leopard users in September 2009 for $29. Apple also unveiled a Developer Preview of Mac OS X Server Snow Leopard, a full 64-bit UNIX server operating system based on open standards that is up to twice as fast as its predecessor.

Today Apple released Safari 4, the world’s fastest and most innovative web browser. Available for Mac and Windows PCs and introduced as a beta in February of this year, Safari 4 features the Nitro engine which runs JavaScript up to 4.5 times faster than Safari 3. Safari 4 makes browsing more intuitive and enjoyable with innovative features, such as Top Sites, Full History Search and Cover Flow, and support for modern web standards like HTML 5 and advanced CSS Effects.

Filed under: Apple Corporate, Retail, Apple Financial

New York City’s flagship Apple Store, located on 5th Avenue in Manhattan, is doing tremendous business. According to The New York Post, that store raked in $440 million in one year. Of course, the location doesn’t hurt. It’s right by Central Park and the huge, glass cube is a real tourist draw.

The Post also notes that the SoHo store pulled in $100 million, but didn’t provide any stats on the West 14th Street store. In the meantime, construction has begun on what’s rumored to be a fourth NYC store, expected to open at the corner of 67th and Broadway on Manhattan’s Upper West Side later this year. If that store and a rumored Brooklyn store are opened, NYC would boast six stores total (including the Staten Island store).

Apple intends to open 25 new stores for fiscal year 2009, half of them outside the United States.

[via AppleInsider]

TUAWNew York’s flagship Apple Store doing great business originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 03 Jun 2009 06:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A lot of questions for today’s big WWDC keynote in San Francisco. Let’s hope it’s a yes for both of them, I really like Steve Jobs presenting new products.

Tags:iphone steve jobs WWDCiphone, steve jobs, WWDC

Filed under: iPhone, iPod touch, First Look, App Review

The ability to send physical postcards from your iPhone is not a new concept, but the just-released Postino (link opens iTunes) from AnguriaLab adds a new twist to an old favorite — having the option to send e-cards for those who want to send a postcard, but not bother with the hassle of a paper card.

Launching Postino takes you to a simple navigating screen: Photo, Message, Signature, Address, then the almighty Send. You can either select a photo from your camera roll or take a new picture. For this experiment, I chose a photo I’d already taken of my favorite sushi bar here in the Phoenix area. I added an optional frame, a message, then, in a neat twist, drew in my own signature. Shaking the palette for the signature area clears it so you can start over.

For the purposes of this review, I chose to send the postcard as an e-card to my most willing and unsuspecting test subject — my fiancé. You can either type in the e-mail or address, or choose from your contact list. Physical postcards can be sent worldwide, which is a feature lacking in the other postcard applications that we’ve reviewed in the past. All you need to do is purchase a virtual stamp through the app, which costs $1.99USD with up to 20% discount with bulk purchases, via PayPal. After you send the postcard, you can use the Recents tab to check on the status of both the e-cards and the physical ones.

The final product generated via e-mail is the two halves of the card side by side, which is one of the things I would tweak. The postcard was bigger than the available screen size, even when I expanded Mail to full size on my MacBook. The e-card sends out at 1200×1600 pixels for the full card. The picture itself turned out great and would look good on a physical postcard, but a smaller size would be perfect for the e-cards. My fiancé also appreciated the e-card he was sent, though he did comment on the need to scroll to see it all.

Postino is currently available for free through the App Store, but will soon cost $.99USD. If you want to give it a try, now’s your chance.

TUAWFirst Look: Postino adds e-card options to iPhone postcard app originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 01 Jun 2009 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Rumors, Software, iPhone, iPod touch

If you own and iPod touch or an iPhone, you might have bought an app, deleted it for whatever reason and then downloaded it again from the App Store. Since Apple keeps a record of your purchases, you were presented with a dialog box saying that you could re-download that app for free.

According to iPodNN, some developers with preview copies of iPhone OS 3.0 have seen a dialog box (pictured at right) prompting them to either re-download a missing app for free via their computer, or simply buy it again via their iPhones. Who knows why this could be, or if it will even make the final version of iPhone OS 3.0 — one might think it’s to save AT&T bandwidth, but why not restrict the option to WiFi?

In any case, we’ll find out soon enough.

TUAWRumor: Pay to re-download iPhone/iPod touch apps originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 01 Jun 2009 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: iTunes, Software Update, iPhone, iPod touch

iTunes 8.2 just became available in Software Update. According to the update notes, “iTunes 8.2 now supports iPhone or iPod touch with the iPhone 3.0 Software Update. iTunes 8.2 also includes many accessibility improvements and bug fixes.” The update weighs in at 79.3 MB.

QuickTime 7.6.2 and GarageBand Update 5.0.2 also became available at the same time. In keeping with Apple’s policy of full disclosure, there’s not much information for users about what’s in either of the updates, although subscribers to Apple’s security notification list got an email with a list of 10 fixed vulnerabilities in the QT update (soon to be posted at Apple’s security site and reproduced in the second half of this post).

The GarageBand update “addresses general compatibility issues, improves overall stability, and fixes a number of other minor issues [including] Improved purchasing experience for Artist Lessons in the GarageBand Lesson Store [&] Accessing installed Jam Packs in the loop browser.” The update is required if you are purchasing lessons from the Lesson Store.

The iTunes update is one more clear sign that iPhone 3.0 is just around the corner. Be sure to stay tuned to our coverage of the Apple Worldwide Developer Conference next week for all your iPhone news!

Continue reading iTunes 8.2 in Software Update, supports iPhone 3.0; QuickTime & GarageBand also patched

TUAWiTunes 8.2 in Software Update, supports iPhone 3.0; QuickTime & GarageBand also patched originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 01 Jun 2009 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Multimedia, Software, Beta Beat

While still in beta, Evom (from The Little App Factory, makers of iPodRip) looks ready to pick up where iSquint left off. It easily and quickly converts videos to formats compatible with iTunes, YouTube, your iPod, and Apple TV.

It couldn’t be a simpler drag-and-drop operation: drop the video on the Evom window, and select a destination. After that, Evom does the heavy lifting and (optionally) adds the finished video to iTunes. The output quality is good — it uses the same technical foundation as ffmpegX. You get the same high quality without all the fiddly controls of ffmpegX.

Evom also includes a bookmarklet that lets you save off YouTube videos to your computer with a single click. The quality of the output there mostly depends on how good the source video is, but it couldn’t be easier.

iSquint, my favorite “as if by magic” video conversion tool, was discontinued after Techspansion (also the makers of iSquint’s bigger brother VisualHub) shut their doors last October. The VisualHub codebase is still being developed, however, in a new project called Video Monkey that Aron covered in March, which is also well worth a look.

Evom is in beta, but unlike iSquint, it appears like it may cost something when the final version is released. It also appears limited to converting 60 items until it’s registered, and trying to register the app leads to a non-existent shopping cart area. Even so, the simple interface and easy installation will be worth a few bucks to me.

[Via Daring Fireball.]

TUAWEvom beta takes up iSquint’s mantle, effortlessly converts video formats originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 01 Jun 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: OS, iPhone, SDK

One of the relatively unsung features of the upcoming iPhone 3.0 firmware is that the new version of Safari for iPhone will use geolocation. This means that the browser can request location information from the iPhone’s GPS receiver, and can also provide that location information to websites that you’re visiting.

ComputerWorld’s Seth Weintraub reports that the beta versions of the firmware are working well with sample web-aware websites. This capability is not only planned for the iPhone’s implementation of Safari, but many upcoming browsers for Mac as well.

Geolocation capabilities make it simple for developers to create web apps that no longer need to ask you for an address or zip code. Google, for instance, is planning on making their Latitude application a 3.0-only web app rather than a standalone application on the iPhone. Latitude will leverage the geolocation features of Safari by knowing exactly where you are at a particular point in time and sending that info to the Latitude servers, then returning the whereabouts of your friends while informing them where you are.

For those of you who don’t want your 3.0-enabled iPhone to let the world know exactly where you are, remember that you can always turn off Location Services in the General Settings or just answer “Don’t Allow” when asked if Safari or a particular website would like to use your current location.

TUAWSafari Browser 3.0 for iPhone is GPS-aware originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 01 Jun 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, iTS, iTunes, iPhone

Yesterday, Megan noted a Fortune story saying that iTunes syncs flawlessly with the new Palm Pre. This, of course, got the water-cooler talk bubbling: “How did Palm pull it off? Will Apple allow this to happen?”

Turns out they already have. A tech note on Apple’s website notes the two dozen or so third-party players that iTunes (for Mac OS X, at least) is compatible with, including Rio and Creative Labs Nomad MP3 players. True, many of the models listed predate the iPod, and the tech note itself was last updated a little less than a year ago. But third-party device compatibility with iTunes isn’t without precedent.

Daring Fireball’s John Gruber pointed to a story by Jon Lech Johansen that says Apple may block iTunes access to the Pre in a future update; Gruber himself said he “wouldn’t be surprised if they did.” I’m not so sure.

First, let’s look at how it works. According to Johansen, a unique USB device ID allows iTunes to recognize MP3 players (including iPods) that it’s compatible with. Johansen speculates that Palm is using one of these IDs when communicating with iTunes. If it’s an iPod’s unique ID, then it will work with iTunes for Windows, too; this is an important litmus test and we don’t know the results yet.

I can understand Apple might not cotton to a Palm Pre specifically masquerading as an iPod USB device. Given that, allowing the Pre to freely communicate with iTunes isn’t necessarily bad business sense, presuming Palm implements the functionality in a forthright manner (like other third-party MP3 players that iTunes already supports).

Why limit access to the Pre, aside from pure spite? If someone already uses iTunes, chances are they have some quantity of DRM-free iTunes Plus music on their computer. There’s no technical reason why the music shouldn’t be easily playable on the Pre. One of the upshots of removing DRM in the iTunes store is to facilitate device interoperability. Allow non-Apple devices to play iTunes music, and suddenly Apple has customers it didn’t have before.

If Apple chooses to cut off just the Pre, and Palm is following the rules, Apple is unnecessarily cutting a stream of revenue. That’s something I don’t see Apple doing lightly.

TUAWFuture iTunes versions could block the Pre, but why? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 30 May 2009 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Software

Yesterday, IGG Software announced iBiz 4, an update to its flagship timekeeping and billing software that adds several new features for freelancers and small groups.

iBiz 4 includes an all-new library of invoice templates, payment reminder and expense tracking functionality, faster editing and entry, and a new way to back up and restore your iBiz data.

The software extends its Mac OS X integration to include creating billing events from items in iCal. Previous versions of iBiz were already integrated with Address Book, but iBiz 4 lets you further organize clients into groups. It also has a spiffy new charting engine based on Core Animation.

iBiz Professional has also been updated, and includes a server component and two client licenses. iBiz Professional allows small teams to coordinate their time and to-do items across a Bonjour network.

iBiz 4 is $40, iBiz 4 Professional is $100, and both are available for download at IGG Software’s website. Both include a 10-day free trial. Users who purchased iBiz 3 after January 5 also qualify for a free upgrade.

TUAWiBiz 4 adds new invoice templates, iCal sync originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 28 May 2009 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hear “Blue Man Group,” and you may think of three, highly entertaining blue-skinned fellows. But Blue Man Group actually consists of more than 400 technical and creative specialists, performers, and support staff. And iPhone 3G plays a vital role for the international company. “iPhone is not only a great creative tool—it’s a great way for any business to stay organized,” says Jeff Turlik, the group’s Associate Creative Director and Music Director.