Don't you love an OS that you can touch?
Well, today I decided to stress test the iPhone’s battery. I pulled the iPhone, fully charged, from its cradle at 7AM this morning. I had initially dropped the screen brightness to a very low setting. But for todays test, I upped it to about 50%. Keep in mind that at 50%, the iPhone is very very bright. (more…)
As if the world needed another iPhone review, I finally feel like I’ve had enough time with mine to offer up my opinion. For the record, I acquired my iPhone last Friday night in Stamford, Connecticut at 11:30. Walked right in to the Apple Store, told them what I wanted, and walked out with it three minutes later. No line, no crowds, no fuss.
I activated it the next morning. Being away from home, I had my wife’s iBook with me. This wasn’t such a big deal, except that it was running OS X 10.4.9 and iTunes 7.2. So, before I could activate the phone, I had to upgrade both. Enter Starbucks and the T-Mobile hotspot WiFi. $9.95 and 25 minutes later, I was upgraded and ready to activate the phone. (more…)
Apple has been taking a beating from the bloggers about Safari for Windows over the last couple of days. The criticism ranges from a bunch of security vulnerabilities that have been found to something as basic as font-smoothing. The press, ever eager to capitalize on this, have already predicted that Safari for Windows will fail. (more…)
Many had been suspecting that Leopard was falling behind schedule, and today, Apple officially announced that it has. From their website:
iPhone has already passed several of its required certification tests and is on schedule to ship in late June as planned. We can’t wait until customers get their hands (and fingers) on it and experience what a revolutionary and magical product it is. However, iPhone contains the most sophisticated software ever shipped on a mobile device, and finishing it on time has not come without a price — we had to borrow some key software engineering and QA resources from our Mac OS X team, and as a result we will not be able to release Leopard at our Worldwide Developers Conference in early June as planned. (more…)
Yeah, that about sums up how I feel about today’s announcements from Apple. Apple has always been a company that charges a premium for it’s products, but this is getting ridiculous.
First up, the new Intel Mac mini. Available in two flavors – a $599 Core Solo 1.5ghz chip with a 60GB HD, and a $799 Core Duo 1.66ghz with an 80GB HD. Yes, Apple jacked the price up by $100 on both the low and high end model. What do you get with the new Mac mini? Well as expected, you get Front Row and the Apple Remote. You get Airport, Bluetooth and USB. You can expand these models up to 2GB of RAM. However, while Front Row has been beefed up with subnet sharing of files, it did not gain the widely anticipated (and highly requested) DVR capabilities.
Oh, and the kicker here is that these new minis feature Intel Integrated Graphics Chipsets (GMA950). Yes, that new 512MB mini you just bought is already running shy about 80MB to handle it’s graphics processing. Isn’t that special?
Clearly, someone in marketing (and Steve himself, for that matter) didn’t learn the painful lesson of the Cube.
Also introduced today was the iPod Hi-Fi, a large rectangular speaker that has an iPod dock/connector on top. It also features built in handles on the side so moving it from room to room should be a breeze. The problem? The price, of course. At $349, the iPod Hi-Fi is $50 more than the Bose Sounddock, which I consider to be the best iPod home audio solution available. Time will tell if Apple will be able to sell these things at such a high price.
The final laugher of the day is the new leather iPod case from Apple. Basically a leather pouch with no window to view your iPod’s screen, no click wheel access, and no common sense. I say no common sense because at $99 this has to be the most brazen attempt to cash in on the iPod craze. Will people buy them at this price? I’m sure some will. But I’m hopeful that most people will have the sense to see what a ripoff this product is.
Today’s announcements have obviously left me puzzled. Has Apple become intoxicated with it’s own success? Time will tell if these products will sell, but I’m betting they won’t be strong points in the product lineup.
Ever since Mac OS 9 was supplanted by Mac OS X, Math and Science professionals have been in need of a quality graphing calculator for their Mac OS. OS 9 included the Graphic Calculator application, but Mac OS X still has no built in graphing calculator.
Apple is looking to change that with Tiger. Instead of developing its own, Apple has bought a product called Curvus Pro X from Arizona Software, according to AppleInsider. Although screenshots and descriptions are still available from Arizona Software about Curvus Pro, a message on their website explains why they are no longer distributing it.
AppleInsider has several screenshots of the rebranded “Graphing Calculator” from a recent Tiger seed.
Tiger is expected to ship in the first half of 2005.
Category: Apple
Holy shit. http://bit.ly/aqDnBw
yesterday
Coda Notes - http://zbl.me/bs
2 days ago
Safari 5.01 - http://zbl.me/br
2 days ago
Firefox 4 is shaping up to be a great release. I might be tempted to switch.
2 days ago
Magic Trackpad - http://zbl.me/bq
2 days ago
So, no price on the 27' LED Cinema Display? Not seeing it in the store, and the product page just says 'coming soon'.
3 days ago
So, looks like today's updates are all about hardware. No iWork or iLife upgrades.
3 days ago
OK - so you can order the new iMac with a Magic Trackpad and Magic Mouse, but not in place of the Magic Mouse? Weak.
3 days ago
The Apple Magic Trackpad is a reality: http://bit.ly/aDl4pJ
3 days ago
A user of Macs since they had silly names like Performa and Centris, Theodore Lee is a techie who prides himself on his vast knowledge of all things Apple. OS X Factor was started in 2001 (originally as macosxcentric), and continues to churn out tips, tutorials, reviews and commentary on the tech sector.
WWDC is fast approaching, and I'll be attending my first conference, courtesy of the Apple Student Developer Scholarship program...
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Steve Jobs will once again be passing on the Apple Expo. Last year the keynote was presented by Apple VP Phil Schiller. This year, however, the keynote has been canceled all together. Steve Jobs will still apparently be attending the Expo, but we are unable to confirm this...