Get Cover Flow Style Contacts for your iPhone
The new ContactFlow app brings the stylish streamlining of the Mac OS X album cover flow to your iPhone and iPod touch. This free $1.99 app displays your contact’s photo just like in iTunes, so that you can easily recognize even last night’s random meet up. And, if you’ve got Facebook enabled for your contacts, the application will pull their photo from the web so you have their most recent photo.
The app is easy to install, though you’ll probably want to place the icon on the main screen of your mobile device for easy access, as the iPhone’s proprietary Contacts app will not be enabled with this stylish feature.
»Download it here! (iTunes link)
Amazon acquires touch-screen maker for future Kindle project
Amazon has purchased touch-screen startup Touchco, with plans to incorporate it into the Kindle’s hardware division.
The New York Times reports that Amazon has acquired New York-based Touchco, a small start-up specializing in touchscreen technology. The company’s interpolating force-sensitive resistance technology allows for flexible, transparent, pressure-sensitive touch-screens that could cost as little as $10 a square foot.
As a comparison, the capitative touch-screens in the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad are more expensive and cannot detect the unlimited amount of simultaneous touch points that Touchco’s technology allows.
Touchco’s technology can reportedly distinguish between the differing pressures produced by a finger or stylus.
According to the Times, Touchco consists of around six employees and Amazon plans on incorporating both the new personnel and technology into its Kindle hardware division, named Lab126, which is located in Cupertino, Calif. - also home to Apple.
Apple’s introduction of the iPad in January has already had an effect on Amazon’s Kindle. Two major publishers have used Apple’s content deals as leverage to negotiate new pricing agreements with the bookseller.
When Apple introduced the iPad last week, it also unveiled the new iBooks application for reading e-books. The software includes the iBookstore, which allows users to purchase content that will be displayed on their virtual bookshelf. Apple announced deals with five major book partners, including Macmillan and HarperCollins.
Amazon’s purchase of Touchco can be thought of as a direct response to Apple’s iPad, and the technology acquired could be included in the next iteration of its Kindle e-reader.
The Times writes, "Amazon has been looking to compete with Apple on other fronts as well. Last month, it announced plans for a Kindle applications store and an effort to get developers to create the same breadth of programs for the Kindle that they have created for the iPhone and, soon, the iPad."
Trillian IM client alpha available for Mac
Those of you who’ve migrated to Apple from the world of PCs most likely remember Trillian—a popular Windows-based, multi-protocol chat program that lets you log into a bunch of your favorite chat services at the same time. Since moving to the Mac, you’ve probably grown accustomed to using Apple’s iChat or the open-source Adium, which lets you do much the same thing.
For those who still miss Trillian, Cerulean Studios has released an alpha build of Trillian for Mac. At the moment, the build is rather unstable, and lacks many of the features Windows users may be used to, such as audio and video chats, a social-network feed, mail integration, and a number of major preferences and customization options.
However, basic IM functions work fine, including support for Trillian’s proprietary protocol Astra, as well as Windows Live, Yahoo, Facebook Chat, AIM, ICQ, XMPP, Google Talk, Bonjour, and MySpaceIM. File transfers also work, as do most Mac hot keys and iTunes tracking.
Cross-platform users will also be pleased to know that contact sync works with Trillian for Mac; just enter in your Trillian username and password and all of your other instant messaging accounts will be imported—passwords and all. An iPhone version of Trillian that syncs contacts and other changes with the Mac version is also available.
While Trillian for Mac has a long way to go to catch up to its deeply entrenched competition, if Cerulean can get features like video and audio chat to work reliably, it may be able to win over Adium and iChat users who yearn for an all-in-one client that can offer such features.
The Trillian for Mac alpha is a free download, and requires an Intel-based Mac and Mac OS X 10.5 or higher.
Nehalem Mac Pro systems suffer audio-based performance issues
The latest Mac Pro models with Nehalem-based Intel Xeon processors reportedly suffer a 20 percent performance hit when playing audio in Mac OS X. When playing audio through iTunes or a number of other applications, users have seen CPU temperatures double, while performance can take a serious hit.
Various user test have found that running Windows 7 via Boot Camp eliminates the issue, leading some to believe the issue is related to power management kernel extensions in Mac OS X.
"Further tests using benchmarks that run the CPU to full utilization show less dramatic temperature increases and, despite the high heat during audio playback, the Mac Pro’s fans do not come on," the report said. "Confounding the issue even more is the fact that using audio doesn’t seem to show any corresponding increase in processor load, just increases in power draw and heat."
Users have reported attempts to discuss the issue with AppleCare representatives, but have allegedly been told that the temperature range for the processor is considered "normal." Speculation on what could cause the issue from a variety of sources is available in the full article at Ars Technica.
Apple’s Mac Pros with Intel Xeon processors based on the Nehalem architecture were introduced in March 2009. in December, Apple added a 3.33GHz quad-core option
Recent reports have suggested Intel’s new six-core "Gulftown" processor could be headed to the Mac Pro in a future upgrade. Apple could stick with the workstation-focused Xeon line of chips, though some rumors have suggested Apple could switch to the new Core i7-980X processor, based on the same architecture.
Photos Leak of the Possible Next-gen iPhone
We’re hearing rumors and seeing photos of the next purported iPhone. Engadget posted an image last week of a leaked iPad and iPhone that the image is proof of the next generation iPhone.
From the image, we can see that the area next to the speaker grill looks somewhat different from the 3GS. There also appears to be a front-facing camera, which is indicated by the white-ish dot. However, it is worthwhile to note that the area in question is home to three sensors on the current generation iPhones. You can normally see these sensors if you hold up your current iPhone to a bright light.
Apple releases iPhone OS 3.1.3 with battery reporting fix
Apple released version 3.1.3 of its iPhone OS software for the iPhone and iPod touch, bringing with it improved accuracy of reported battery level on the iPhone 3GS.
The update also reportedly resolves an issue where third-party applications would not launch in some instances. It also addresses a bug that could cause applications to crash when using the Japanese Kana keyboard.
iPhone OS 3.1.3 also includes a number of security updates related to CoreAudio, ImageIO, Recovery Mode and WebKit. Full details are available in the support document on Apple’s Web site.
The update for the iPhone and iPod touch operating system is available for download through iTunes.
The last update, iPhone OS 3.1.2, arrived last October. It fixed an issue that would cause the iPhone to not wake from sleep, and resolved a glitch that could interrupt cellular network services until restart.
Last week, iPhone OS 3.2 was revealed as part of the new multi-touch iPad. For now, the operating system upgrade is for the iPad hardware only, which is scheduled to launch before the end of March.
iPhone OS 3.2 offers a number of enhancements over the current operating system, including a home screen that can be viewed either horizontally or vertically. It is not yet known what additional features in the iPad version of the iPhone OS could show up in the iPhone or iPod touch.
iPad debut ignites price war between Amazon and publisher Macmillan
Amazon stopped selling print and e-books from publisher Macmillan this weekend over a price dispute, just days after Apple introduced the iPad and its own iBookstore for e-books.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Macmillan CEO John Sargent visited Amazon Thursday to negotiate a new deal for e-book sales. Talks apparently did not go well, as he was later informed that his company’s books would only be available for sale through third parties on Amazon.com.
"Amazon, the leading e-book seller in the world, now faces the prospect of publishers demanding the same terms they receive from Apple," the Journal wrote. "People familiar with Amazon’s action said the move by the online retailer, which targets not only e-books but hardcover and paperback titles, signals its unhappiness with the prospect that e-book prices may rise in coming months as a result of Apple’s e-book debut."
Just days earlier, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs had a conversation with Journal tech reporter Walt Mossberg in which he said that iPad book prices would be "the same" as the cost of e-book content for Amazon’s Kindle. Currently, Kindle bestsellers go for $9.99, but a previous report said Apple wanted to offer bestsellers for between $12.99 and $14.99.
The apparent troubles between Macmillan and Amazon suggests that Jobs’ comments to Mossberg were meant to imply that Amazon book prices would eventually increase to match higher costs on the iPad. Jobs also noted taht book publishers were "withholding their books from Amazon, because they’re not happy with it."
On Wednesday, Macmillan was highlighted as one of five high-profile book publishers that would be a part of the iBookstore, a marketplace within the new iPad iBooks application. Apple’s iBookstore business strategy allegedly employs the same 70-30 split in favor of content providers as the existing iPhone App Store.
"It is expected that publishers will now seek to do business with Amazon and other e-book retailers on the same terms as with Apple," the Journal wrote. "By setting their own prices, publishers would be able to eliminate discounting on Amazon and elsewhere that they believe threatens the long-term business model of publishing."