We were browsing the MacShrine archives and found a story from December 2005 regarding Apple looking for more Front row developers. What sparked our interest was a line in the job application:
Revolutionary new multi-media software… would you like to create software for a centerpiece in Apple’s digital hub?
Since nothing new has happened to Front Row since 2005, we’re guessing this job was in fact for the new Apple TV. How exciting!
The Meizu M8 is said to measure in at a scant 57×105x11.5mm and packs both a GSM and Chinese TD-SCDMA 3G radio, a 3.3″ 720×480 pixel display, Bluetooth, a 3MP camera, and an ARM11 CPU capable of recording video at 30fps at the device’s full 720×480 resolution. It’ll be available from next year in Asia. Perhaps Apple should take note on the specs…
Apple have finally let users purchase the 802.11n enabler for just $1.99 (instead of the rumored $4.99) from the online Apple Store. Alternatively you can download it for free *cough* here.
Apple UK and Ireland have released a set of new “I’m A Mac” ads. They feature David Mitchell and Robert Webb. Last year Apple made some Japanese versions as well. We do prefer the original US ones.
Apple today unexpectedly released new colors to their iPod shuffle range - pink, orange, blue, green and the original silver. With the update, Apple has modified its iPod Shuffle slogan from “Put some music on” to “Put some color on”. The new colors, otherwise identical to the previous 1 GB shuffle, are shipping within 24 hours. Just in time for Valentines day…
Yikes, guess someone is a bit jealous of us or something as this is the third time we’ve been hacked. Goodness knows how long it took them to discover our 54 character password (with numbers, upper and lowercase letters, punctuation…). Should we be saying well done or something? No, I thought not…
Update: Site has been fixed as of Tuesday 30th January, 8.54pm.
You would think that a brand new Mac site would at least be grateful to be mentioned on an established 3 and a half year old site, but it seems not… Apple Recon have been bitching about treatment from ourselves and other Mac sites on how we handled a story of theirs. In a story from a few days ago, “Apple Special Event on February 20th?“, we said:
We must point out that the site has no known accuracy.
Now excuse us for apparently “not doing research” on a site, (*ahem* we use the word “site” sparingly as it’s really just a free blog hosted on WordPress.com - no wonder they were number 1 on the most popular blog list over there having been on the front of Digg…), that no one had heard about until this story came about and was started just before Macworld. So please can we just drop the whole “catfight” nonsense and to stop rubbish like this coming up again - we’ll never again bother reporting about Apple Recon, even their apparent “big story” on Monday…
So we restarted the chart rundown today after a month as the sales chart always stalls around this time of the year. The chart is relatively the same as back in December but with a new entry from Corbin Bleu.
United States Top 10:
Apple Recon is reporting that Apple is to hold a special event on February 20th. We must point out that the site has no known accuracy.
We have just gotten an anonymous tip from a source that indicates that Apple is planning a special event on February 20 to introduce Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard), iLife ‘07 and iWork ‘07 as well as updated Mac Pros. Mac Pros will be available immediately with a free upgrade to 10.5 when it ships, and the ship date for 10.5 will be confirmed for 3/24/07 as we have been predicting for quite some time now.
Apple shipped 1,606,000 Macs and 21,066,000 iPods during their last quarter, representing 28% growth in Macs and 50% growth in iPods over the year-ago quarter. Apple also posted record revenue of $7.1 billion and record net quarterly profit of $1.0 billion, or $1.14 per diluted share.
At a recent industry conference, David Munns, head of EMI America, said the Beatles would be available online “soon.” Apple and EMI were hoping to make a splashy announcement to coincide with the November 21st release of “Love,” a mashup of Beatles songs that serves as a soundtrack to a Las Vegas Cirque du Soleil production. That didn’t happen. Recently though talks have resumed again. According to a music industry executive apprised of the talks, they are discussing how lengthy a window of exclusivity iTunes might get and how many tens of millions of dollars Apple will commit to an advance for the band and marketing costs. Also being discussed is whether the band would be willing to take two steps at the same time and endorse the iPod by allowing its music to be used in a commercial. Another scenario making the rounds is the prospect of the Beatles following U2’s example with a branded iPod. “If the Beatles were in an iPod ad, that would be humongous,” this executive said. Are we the only ones who don’t really care if the Beatles get on iTunes or not? We all own the CD anyway… The Superbowl kicksoff 4th February.
Users wanting to activate 802.11n technology in their Macs will have to fork out $4.99 for an update patch or purchase the new Airport Extreme 802.11n which will include the patch. But don’t worry, it’ll probably be available at all the *usual places* soon after. Reasons behind the move and such a small fee are not necessarily clear at the moment. So $179.99 or $4.99… or free..
Apple plans to open up protected music and movies content bought from the iTunes Store. Apple is expected to make two announcements, possibly as early as this week - the first will be to allow streaming of protected AAC content via USB; the second will be to licence its Fairplay DRM to the company’s “Made For iPod” licencees. The expected announcements could signal a move on Apple’s part to take some of the sting out of its Fairplay DRM which has come in for a great deal of criticism over recent months.
Cisco Systems said today it is suing Apple in federal court over Apple’s use of Cisco’s registered iPhone trademark for its new handheld device. Cisco has owned the trademark on the name “iPhone” since 2000, when it acquired InfoGear Technology, which originally registered the name. And three weeks ago, Cisco’s Linksys division put the trademark to use, releasing an Internet-enabled phone called “iPhone” that uses VoIP. “Cisco entered into negotiations with Apple in good faith after Apple repeatedly asked permission to use Cisco’s iPhone name,” said Mark Chandler, Cisco senior vice president and general counsel, in a statement. “There is no doubt that Apple’s new phone is very exciting, but they should not be using our trademark without our permission.” Cisco is seeking injunctive relief to prevent Apple from copying Cisco’s iPhone trademark.
The Windows Home Server is an easy to use, plug ‘n play server for the family. You can share all your movies, pictures, music, files, etc. with up to 10 users wirelessly and can access your files anywhere in the world via a free personalized domain. Microsoft is using these as OEM devices and customizing them to different manufacturers needs. HP is releasing their version in Q2 this year with a storage capacity between 500GB and 1TB. There’s also four USB ports and three extra drive bays in case you run out of storage. Rumors are that the price will be in the $500-ish zone.
Let’s get right into it. 16 hours battery life for music playback? Yikes, I get more from my “proper” iPod. Apple says we get the full Mac OS X, more like a stripped-down version - we can’t load our own applications (…more like widgets…) onto the thing. Also what’s up with being locked to Cingular? What will happen when it’s released in Europe - will it be locked to a network which is almost unseen nowadays. The iPhone is also a “widescreen iPod” as Steve said so why does it only have a paltry 8GB - how much music is that? Meh, this is only a prototype - hopefully by June the software and hardware will be updated as Nokia and Co have around 5 months to develop their own version! No removable memory and no removable and changeable battery? What was Apple thinking.
Apple did it to the iPod so why can’t Microsoft do it to their Zune? The European Xbox Chief Chris Lewis said that “gaming is certainly something we’re considering for the Zune”. It’s not like Microsoft is completely foreign to video games. They have quite the ample team working on PC games, as well as groundbreaking titles for the Xbox 360, so it shouldn’t be too difficult porting old titles (if not creating all new ones) to the Zune. Can you imagine taking Xbox Live Arcade titles from the Zune marketplace? Is this the portable Xbox we’ve been hearing about?
Steve announced today that Apple will be changing it’s name from “Apple Computer Inc” to just “Apple Inc”. Which makes sense as everyone knows them just by “Apple”. But what’s slightly worrying is that today they were still “Computer” but there was no sign of any Mac related announcements - strange considering there is a major OS launch in around 2 months.
As we said earlier this week, Apple has as expected updated the Airport Extreme to 802.11n and a new sleek look ala Apple TV but in white. It can support up to 50 users, has a USB port for sharing printers wirelessly and can also support external hard drives! It’s available right now for $179.00. Go grab it.
Where is iWork ‘07, iLife ‘07 and our Leopard preview! *sigh* We guess the iPhone and Apple TV are supposed to make up for it?
Update: Oh, we forgot about those new Paramount movies, yay…
