Not that this hasn't been reported in a bazillion other places, but Apple is holding a media event next Tuesday October 14 to unveil new MacBooks. What secrets will they hold? What magical powers will they possess? What worldly ails will they cure? Only time will tell!
Apple's iPhone SDK announcement is tomorrow at 1pm Eastern. I could list all the other time zones, but frankly if you don't live in my time zone then forget you. Plus, Engadget has already done the work. Macrumors, Engadget, and others will have the results of the announcement. I could link to them all, but that would require some effort and frankly, you're just not worth it. I may or may not post an update regarding the announcement. It just depends on how much you piss me off.
Happy Tuesday! Apple rolled out long-awaited updates to the MacBook and MacBook Pro lines today.
MacBook Pro: Multi-touch trackpad, upgraded processors (Penryn), new video card w/512MB of memory.
MacBook: Upgraded processors (Penryn).
So if you were holding off, now is the time. Or wait another 260+ days for the next revision. :-)
I'm sure you were wondering why the sudden drop in price on the iPod Shuffle. Well, there's a 2GB iPod shuffle "coming soon" at the low-low price of $69. Not bad, Apple.
Apple surprised everyone by announcing two updated products ahead of next week's Macworld today. The new Mac Pro sports 8 core processing, insane graphics capabilities (you can run 8! 30 inch cinema displays at once!), new system architecture and a whole lot more.
The XServe gets updated as well with 8 core processing, new system architecture, 3TB of internal storage and unlimited Leopard client licenses for under $3k. Not bad.
Can't wait to see what Apple has in store for us next week!
Okay - let's dismiss the fact that it's Starbucks. Their coffee truly sucks. If you like it, you really don't like coffee. Bitter and ewww, just yuck. What's truly significant about this.
Let's disect it. You have an iPod touch. You walk into a Starbucks and you're working and listening to the music playing over the loudspeakers. I'd be lieing if I said I never wondered what a song was while I was working at my local Caribou.
Think about it. You're in the coffee shop, and on your iPod it shows you what's playing. Think about the technology to make that happen. Regardless of the fact that it's Starbucks (with coffee that sucks). Think about the integration and the customer ease-of-use. Incredible. This will be popular over the long haul.
Summary:
New iPod Shuffle colors including a RED model.
New funky-looking iPod nano with 2” screen, video playback, new colors
New iPod classics with thinner metal enclosures, longer battery life, new UI, 80GB and 160GB storage.
New iPod Touch – basically an iPhone without the phone at 8GB and 16GB, Wi-Fi, YouTube, Safari.
Wi-Fi iTunes Store for iPod Touch and iPhone with lame Starbucks integration.
8GB iPhone Price Drops $200 to $399. No word on 4GB model.
Ringtone Service for iPhone – 99 cents for song and another 99 cents to turn it into a ringtone
Well it's about damn time. I've been waiting for a new iLife for way too long. New sexy iMacs were launched this past Tuesday along with iLife and iWorks updates. The new iMacs are significantly thinner, feature a glass glossy screen and upgraded specs. It also sports a new ridiculously thin keyboard in a wired or wireless version. The 17" model is discontinued, but is replaced by a same-priced 20". All around yumminess.
iLife features upgrades to all the suites, along with a new photo sharing enhancement which quite honestly I've not had time to learn much about. iWork upgrades Keynote and Pages, but adds an Excel-killer (come-on, Keynote absolutely makes PowerPoint look like a hack) called "Numbers".
.Mac also received a more-than-much-needed upgrade. Among many other things, it now supports 10 gigs of space instead of 1; supports personal domains and tighter integration with iLife & iWork.
More on this eventually.
Apple has sent exclusive invites to select members of the press to a special event next Tuesday August 7 at 10am PDT. New brushed aluminum iMacs have been rumored for weeks so that's anyone's best guess.
Nothing too earth-shattering today at the Stevenote during the Apple Worldwide Developer's Conference (WWDC), but cool nonetheless. Here's the roundup:
Leopard - New Desktop, Stacks, New Finder (with Coverflow!) and QuickView were the "secret features" Steve alluded to at Macworld in January. Add this to Spaces, Time Machine, iChat and more, and Leopard will be one kick-ass system. Check out the demos.
Safari - Public beta of version 3.0 was released today. The shocker that no one predicted - Safari's available on Windows now. I'm using 3.0 to type this, and it certainly works faster and better than the old. I used to have to post in Firefox because Safari didn't play nicely with Blogger. I'll be loading it up on my Windows XP virtual machine over in Parallels shortly. Download it.
Games - EA announced they were coming back to the Mac. I didn't even know they left. Id Games showed some incredibly detailed gaming on the Mac as well.
iPhone - Steve revealed that the iPhone will go on sale at 6pm on 29 June. Can't wait.
Apple.com - Not sure if this was discussed during the Keynote, but Apple.com has a new look & feel which is very nice. As a usability professional I especially like the sliders at the top of the pages to select products & services. Nice touch.
The good people at TooPoppy bring us the news that Paul McCartney's new album is now available for pre-order via iTunes.
On Tuesday as predicted, Apple launched new MacBooks with a slight speed bump, more memory and bigger hard drives. While this is great and all, I'm looking for my new LED backlit, Santa Rosa-based MacBook Pro! Apple, don't make me wait until June!
iTunes added Lionsgate Films to its ever growing music library. They added Paramount back in January. Who's next?
The 2008 Scion lineup offers iPod integration. That's all. Just thought you might like to know. The TC is kinda nice looking. The others are a bit retarded. Sorry if you own one, no offense. By the way, Scion is a division of Toyota. I go now.
TicketMaster announced today a partnership with iTunes that will give TicketMaster customers a free song and opportunity to purchase tickets in advance of others when pre-ordering from iTunes. You may recall the attempt to do this with the Red Hot Chili Peppers' last album and it not going very well. Apparently they've got the kinks worked out.
via TUAW
Finally, Apple has settled with Apple. Apple reported paid Apple between 50 to 100 million dollars to use the Apple name. Unfortunately, the joint statement did not include Apple allowing Apple to sell the Beatles' catalog through Apple's iTunes Store. But I'm glad it is at least settled. It was hard watching my two favorite things at such odds with each other. Let's pray that the deal quietly includes licensing the Beatles' catalog on iTunes. Not that I need any of the songs - I have them all, but if they're remastered to the same sound quality as on "1", then I'll have to buy them all again.
Not only did my home town team not win (Grossman SUCKS!), there was no rumored announcement from Apple of a new iPod and Beatles on the iTS. Oh well. As a die-hard Cubs fan, losses just roll off my back...
Apple has lost its attempt to suppress the rumor sites. In a definitive ruling, Apple must pay AppleInsider and PowerPage a total of $700,000 dollars for legal fees and more. Apple filed suit in 2005 for breaking trade secret laws related to an unreleased music product called "Asteroid".
A similar lawsuit agains ThinkSecret is still pending.
If you have a MacBook, MacBook Pro or iMac with a Core 2 Duo processor, you can now download the updater for a mere $1.99. What is the new 802.11n wireless standard? Faster and wider wireless networking. How many networks support it right now? Very very very few.
These Macs have the 802.11n hardware built-in:
But wait? No black or red? Bummer.
Still $79!
*Update: the new iPods come with the new (slightly) better earbuds. If you want the silver, be sure to pick one up with gray print on the box. Silver Shuffles with green print come with the old-school earbuds.
