Possible Apple tablet multi-touch tactile keyboard detailed
Apple’s forthcoming tablet could employ a dynamic surface that gives users tactile feedback when typing in order to identify individual keys, according to a new patent application revealed this week.
Apple developers told to prepare 'full screen' apps for Jan.
Further fueling a whirlwind of tablet-related speculation Wednesday, some app developers have reportedly been told by Apple to prepare new versions of their software for a "full screen resolution" demo next month.
"Apple is preparing to show off a new, larger mobile device with a higher resolution display in January -- probably a version of the Apple tablet we’ve been hearing about for months -- according to a plugged-in source in the mobile industry," Silicon Alley Insider reported Wednesday.
The source reportedly said that developers were asked to prepare their apps for a demo next month by making them support a full-screen resolution, rather than the fixed 320x480 pixel size of the iPhone and iPod touch screen. The source said applications that can accommodate the larger screen size will run "just fine" on the new device.
The report also alleged that the device will not go on sale in January, but will simply be demoed. It is assumed that Apple wants to give other developers more time to prepare their applications to run on larger screens.
The rumor would suggest that the tablet runs a version of the iPhone OS, as it is alleged to be compatible with existing iPhone and iPod touch apps, albeit at a higher resolution.
The Silicon Alley Insider report was another in a number of tablet-related rumors that cropped up Wednesday. Earlier reports suggested a January unveiling, with mass production expected to start as soon as February. That could put it on track for March release. Another report alleged that Apple was working on a tablet with a 7-inch screen size, contrary to many longstanding claims of a 10-inch screen, though speculation has suggested Apple could release both form factors.
Various publications have connected the tablet and its anticipated formal announcement with two recent moves by Apple: the purchase of music streaming service Lala, which is expected to result in an overhaul of the iTunes service, and the company’s alleged negotiations with CBS and Walt Disney to allow a TV subscription plan. The tablet is expected to be portrayed as a multimedia device capable of browsing the Web, watching movies, and reading content.
Various publishers have prepared for the tablet, even though it has not been officially announced. But numerous rumors have indicated that Apple has reached out to various print publications about providing their content on a new form factor.
Firmware update addresses 27-inch iMac flickering
If you have a swanky new 27-inch iMac and have been experiencing problems with a flickering display, Apple has an early Christmas present for you.
Almost as soon as Apple started shipping the hot new 27-inch iMacs, the support discussion forums on Apple.com started filling up with complaints about flickering and image corruption in the displays.
Apple has released a new graphics firmware update that corrects video-flickering and image corruption problems with the latest 27-inch iMacs.
The 683KB patch, available for download from Apple’s support site, addresses reports that have surfaced on several Internet news outlets and discussion boards, including Apple’s own forums, over the past few weeks. The download updates the firmware on ATI Radeon HD 4670 and 4850 graphics that come with the 27-inch iMacs.
Google Can Keep Using Lala After Apple Acquisition
There’s been a lot of chatter lately regarding tension between Apple and Google, but one front where the Mac maker and the search giant appear to be simpatico is regarding Lala Media.
Lala, you will recall, is the music streaming business that Apple bought for $85 million back on December 6, in the process reportedly snatching it away from another suitor, Google. Tech enthusiasts held their breath waiting to see how that purchase would play out between the media giants, particularly since Google had partnered with Lala only a few months back for a music search deal.
According to BusinessWeek, that worry was for naught. Google director of product management R.J. Pittman explains that the companies have agreed to leave the current deal in place. “We have enjoyed a good relationship with Apple for many years, and that continues to be the case,” Pittman says. “We are agreeing to continue to leave the service as it is.”
Apple, always content with “the less said, the better,” had no comment other than spokesman Steve Dowling confirming the obvious: “We generally do not comment on our purpose or plans” regarding acquisitions.
Although Lala’s Google deal appears to be safe for now, elsewhere a storm continues to brew between Apple and Google on a number of fronts. In addition to the obvious smartphone battle between iPhone OS and Android, browsers (Safari vs. Chrome) and even desktop operating systems (Mac OS X vs. Chrome OS) are in both companies’ scopes. Google has been making great strides in the cloud-based world where Apple clearly intends to come stomping into.
Exactly how Lala fits into Apple’s plans is unclear, but most analysts see Cupertino leveraging its new purchase to make your iTunes library available anywhere there’s an Internet connection, instead of being tied to a hardware device like the iPhone or iPod touch.
iPod touch users slow to upgrade mobile OS
While nearly 95 percent of iPhone users have upgraded to iPhone 3.0 or greater, only 55 percent of iPod touch users have done the same.
According to numbers compiled by online advertiser Chitika, only 55 percent of iPod touch users have paid the fee to upgrade their devices to OS 3.0 or higher. Nearly 95 percent of iPhone users have made the free upgrade. These numbers were based on the sampling of traffic across the Chitika advertising network.
Chitiaka attributes this, aside from the obvious price difference, to OS 3.X having little to offer the typical iPod touch user. "Push notifications? MMS? Tethering? Essentially useless on a device that relies on WiFi for a connection. iPod touch users are essentially asked to pay for copy/paste, in-app purchases, and the ability to buy a segment of the latest apps from the app store."
Apple released iPhone Software 3.0 in June, adding MMS, cut/copy/paste, landscape keyboard, and Spotlight Search among others. To upgrade the iPod touch’s OS, one must pay $5 to $10, depending on the time at which they purchased the device.
Beyond 'Nexus One,' Google rumored to create netbook hardware
As reports continue to state Google will sell a custom built phone very soon, a new rumor suggests the search company will also release its own branded netbook PC when Chrome OS debuts in late 2010.
If true, it would mean that Google and Apple are set to compete yet again, this time in the hardware and software PC business. The latest rumor is just more evidence of why Google CEO Eric Schmidt was forced to resign from the Apple Board of Directors in August, as the two companies face off with competing browsers, phones and, in the future, operating systems.
According to TechCrunch, sources claim Google has talked to at least one PC maker "about building a netbook for Google directly." The talks supposedly went as far as Google making a request for proposal with "quite detailed technical specifications." Discussions about building the low-cost netbook are said to be taking place already.
"They’re not in any particular hurry and seem to be aiming for the 2010 holiday season, a full year from now," author Michael Arrington said. "Our understanding is that Google intends to have the devices built, branded with Google, and then sell them directly to consumers. The only firm tech spec we’ve heard is that they’ll be mobile enabled, and likely tied to one or more carriers with a subsidy."
Arrington also first reported of an imminent release of a "Google Phone" in November. While that news remains unconfirmed, the search company recently issued custom-built handsets to its employees. In addition, various reports have alleged that Google will directly sell the unlocked "Nexus One" phone contract-free starting in January, although U.S. carrier T-Mobile is also rumored to offer the device at a subsidized price.
Details on the supposed Chrome OS netbook are unknown at this point, such as what kind of processor the system might employ. However, Arrington speculated that it might run on an ARM CPU or Nvidia’s Tegra line, bypassing the Intel Atom commonly found in low-cost machines today.
It was the announcement of Chrome OS that proved to be the final straw for Schmidt’s presence on the Apple board. Google issued a technical introduction of the Web-based operating system in November.
Chrome OS will utilize the company’s Chrome Web browser, running on a specialized Linux kernel. Software on the operating system will be Web applications that run within their own sandbox. There will be no native apps, and the operating system will not be nearly as sophisticated as Apple’s Mac OS X.
As the netbook market has grown over the past year, rumors and projections have persisted that Apple would eventually release its own low-cost machine. Instead, Apple has remained in the premium-priced market, where it has achieved high margins and record profits from Mac sales.
The Chrome for Mac Web browser finally achieved its beta release milestone earlier this month. The beta release came more than a year after its Windows counterpart, which was much later than the company had hoped.
Apple Updates iPhone iDisk Application
Apple updated its iDisk iPhone application for MobileMe.
Besides getting a fantastic new icon, version 1.1 of the application also gains some new features:
- Autocomplete email addresses when choosing recipients for a shared file
- File sharing emails are automatically saved to your Mail account’s Sent folder
- When viewing an image, tap and hold to save it to the camera roll or copy it to another app
MacRumors also notes that the application increases the optional cache size from 200MB to 500MB, allowing faster downloading, squashes some bugs, and adds localizations for Chinese, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Italian, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish.
MobileMe users can download this free application from the App Store [iTunes link], which includes these and more features.
Microsoft brings Bing to iPhone, RedLaser tops $1M in revenue
Microsoft’s search engine, Bing, now has its own application on the App Store that allows voice search, location finder, maps access and more; and the popular RedLaser app has earned more than $1 million in revenue.
Apple seen in 'pole position' to control mobile Internet computing
The platform of the iPhone, iPod touch and iTunes has seen the fastest rate of adoption of any new technology in history, a new study has concluded.
Microsoft patches Office 2003 lockout bug
Microsoft has fixed a problem in Office 2003 that prevented the software from opening documents saved using its access control technology.
The company warned late Friday that Office 2003 would not be able to open documents that had been protected with its Rights Management Services (RMS) beyond that day until Microsoft issued an update, even if users were authorized to open the document.
Users also could not save documents with RMS, which is used to prevent sensitive documents from being opened by unauthorized users, among other functions.
The problem was caused by the expiration of an Information Rights Management (IRM) certificate. On Saturday, Microsoft released a hotfix, it wrote on its Office Sustained Engineering Team blog .
The problem affects Word 2003, Word 2003 Viewer, Excel 2003, Excel 2003 Viewer, PowerPoint 2003 and Outlook 2003. Office 2007 is not affected and neither is the Office 2010 beta, according to a Microsoft spokeswoman.
If the hotfix is not applied, users will see the warning: "Unexpected error occurred. Please try again later or contact your system administrator."
The problem was first reported by Technologizer blog .
Toshiba announces 64GB NAND flash chip, likely iPhone bound
Toshiba has announced its new 64GB embedded NAND flash memory module will offer the highest available capacity in the industry in the first quarter of 2010.
The iPhone 3GS, released in June, included up to 32 GB of Toshiba NAND flash memory. The memory maker announced Tuesday that it created a new 64GB chip that combines 16 32Gbit (equal to 4GB) NAND chips using 32nm process technology. The chips also integrate a dedicated controller.
The new chips are available for sample now, and mass production of them is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2010. Toshiba said the product will be used in smartphones, mobile phones, netbooks and digital video cameras.
Likely to be a customer is Apple, which has doubled the maximum capacity of the iPhone with a new release every summer. Given the current 32GB iPhone 3GS, next year’s iPhone is likely to offer 64GB of capacity.
In addition, the new 64GB iPod touch, introduced in September, uses a pair of 32GB NAND chips to achieve its maximum capacity. Toshiba’s new chips would allow Apple to release a 128GB iPod touch sometime in 2010.
Toshiba said its new 64GB chip offers up to 1,070 hours of music at 128Kbps,8.3 hours of full-spec high definition video, and 19.2 hours of standard definition video. The individual 32Gbit chips are said to be 30 micrometers thick, giving them the highest density of NAND flash in the industry.
Mobile phone sales down in 2009, Chrome barely edges Safari
Overall mobile phone sales are predicted to be down from 2008; the Android Market now has 20,000 applications; and the recent release of Google Chrome beta helped give the browser a slight lead over Safari in market share.
