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Archive for the ‘Hardware’ Category

Apple Patent Describes Smart Remote Technology

Written on November 20, 2009 by Liam Cassidy and 3 people have commented

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office yesterday published a patent application Apple made way back in 2008 for “Pushing a User Interface to a Remote Device.” So, then…Smart Remotes. Cool!
MacRumor’s Eric Slivka reports that the patent’s lead inventor is William Bull, now Yahoo’s Senior Director of Mobile User Experience, but once upon a time Apple’s [...]

Rumored Apple Tablet Now Rumored to Be Delayed

Written on November 19, 2009 by Charles Jade and 4 people have commented

Ever entertaining—if unreliable—DigiTimes has not one, but two big tablet rumors today. The mythical device (subscription required) has been delayed from early 2010 to the second half of next year, and there will an OLED model. Seriously.
According to anonymous sources inside that the electronics supply chain, Apple changed the launch from March—as opposed to January—to “switch [...]

Ozzie Misses the Point, says Apps Don’t Matter

Written on November 18, 2009 by Liam Cassidy and 10 people have commented

Speaking yesterday at the Professional Developer’s Conference, Microsoft’s Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie explained what’s really important when it comes to the smartphone business, and it’s apparently nothing at all to do with the number of apps available on any one platform.
All the apps that count will be ported to every one of them. It’s [...]

Intel Capital Invests in Mac-focused Active Storage

Written on November 18, 2009 by Weldon Dodd and 1 person has commented

Is it possible that the Mac is making inroads with Enterprise IT? Intel Capital announced at CEO Summit that it is leading a Series A investment round in Active Storage of Torrance, CA, which builds high-performance storage solutions for the Mac platform. Other investors in this round include Mission Ventures and Valhalla Partners. Intel Capital invests in [...]

iCarte Turns the iPhone Into an RFID Reader

Written on November 18, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 6 people have commented

Earlier we reported that the next generation of iPhone might have an RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) reader built in, if rumors prove true. Well, there’s no need to wait that long, if near-field communications (NFC) is what you’ve got a hankerin’ for. Wireless Dynamics has announced a device called the iCarte that will add both [...]

Holiday Buying Guide: Picking the Right Digital Camera

Written on November 18, 2009 by Alfredo Padilla and 4 people have commented

With Black Friday rapidly approaching, the time of the year for spending is upon us. Although I’m sure all of us Mac lovers are considering which Apple product we’ll be blowing our budget on (mine will be a Magic Mouse), there are also the other gadgets in our lives to consider.
One of the most important [...]

Apple Ranks a Lackluster Fourth in Notebook Reliability Study

Written on November 17, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 19 people have commented

Apple is fairly reliable, but not the most reliable company of all when it comes to notebooks, according to a new study by research firm SquareTrade. The top honor goes to Asus, which surprised me, but I suppose shouldn’t have when I consider the build quality of my fairly inexpensive Eee PC. Toshiba and Sony [...]

Opinion: Psystar Ruling Could Have Set Precedent for Upgrading Your Mac

Written on November 16, 2009 by Dave Greenbaum and 46 people have commented

This past Friday, your future ability to upgrade your Mac may have been significantly restricted. Psystar, the company that tried to create “open” Macs by running OS X on non-Apple hardware, suffered a quick defeat in its effort against Apple’s OS license restrictions.
No question this was a long shot and Psystar was going for the [...]

“ikee” iPhone Worm Progeny Not So Harmless

Written on November 12, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 3 people have commented

Earlier this week, we reported that the first iPhone worm had been created. It was called “ikee,” and all it did was change the default wallpaper on devices to an image of Rick Astley with “ikee is never going to give you up” printed across the top. It was relatively harmless, if annoying, and the [...]

New Patent Application Suggests Apple Tablet Could Have Pen Input

Written on November 12, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 4 people have commented

Apple apparently isn’t exclusively devoted to the idea of finger-based multi-touch input on all its devices, a recent patent applications shows. The patent application, found by Apple Insider, describes the use of a pen-like stylus to operate an “ink information” input system, and references tablet computing applications for the new tech by name.
“Ink information” refers [...]

Apple’s Atomic War

Written on November 11, 2009 by Mark Crump and 21 people have commented

With the release of 10.6.2, Apple killed unsupported support for the Atom processor — the processor used in low-cost netbooks. Certain models of netbooks could run OS X quite easily, and people used them to make the Little Netbook Apple Refuses to Make. While it’s a stretch to say Apple has killed the hackintosh market, [...]

VESA Issues Mini DisplayPort Standard

Written on November 10, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 3 people have commented

Earlier this year (right at the beginning, in fact), we brought news that the Video Electronics Standard Association (VESA) might potentially make the Mini DisplayPort standard, meaning that manufacturers outside of Apple can now use it in their products without Apple’s approval, including rival computer makers, among others.
The Mini DisplayPort (mDP) standard is described as [...]

Orange Launch Day iPhone Sales Set a Record

Written on November 10, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 2 people have commented

Today is the day the iPhone stopped being an exclusive in the UK. Officially, as of 7 a.m., the device went on sale at Orange retailers across the UK, and the carrier is already claiming that the iPhone has gone over exceedingly well with consumers, despite already having been available to O2 customers since its [...]

MacBook vs. MacBook Pro: Which Should You Buy?

Written on November 10, 2009 by Charles Moore and 23 people have commented

AppleGazette’s Kevin Whipps addresses the quandary over how to choose between a MacBook and a MacBook Pro, noting that it used to be that if you wanted a 13-inch Mac laptop (excluding the MacBook Air), the only option was the original MacBook. Now with a 13-inch aluminum MacBook Pro on the market, the decision has [...]

O2 UK to Officially Unlock iPhones Following Competitor Launch

Written on November 09, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 7 people have commented

O2 just announced what seems like a fairly magnanimous gesture on its part today, in preparation for the launch of the iPhone on other UK carriers and the end of iPhone exclusivity in that country. That should mean that O2 customers who want to take their business elsewhere can have their phones unlocked as early [...]

Critical Update Issued for Apple TV

Written on November 08, 2009 by Charles Jade and 4 people have commented

Ten days after updating the Apple TV’s software to version 3.0, Apple has released version 3.0.1 along with an alarming warning about users’ content “temporarily” disappearing.

From the uninformative and unintentionally hilarious support document, if you are running Apple TV 3.0 and “all of your movies, TV shows, and songs appear to be missing” or “all [...]

The White Unibody is the Second-Best MacBook Ever, So Why Do I Feel So Let Down?

Written on November 06, 2009 by Charles Moore and 41 people have commented

The new plastic unibody MacBook is arguably the second-best MacBook model Apple has produced yet (trumped only by the late 2008 aluminum unibody MacBook). So why am I finding myself unexpectedly underwhelmed and disappointed with it?
When rumors began circulating in late summer about an imminent new unibody MacBook in polycarbonate plastic. Being a consummate Apple [...]

Rumor Has It: 8GB 3GS, RFID-Capable iPhones on the Way?

Written on November 06, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 2 people have commented

What better way to end the week than with two fresh, shiny new iPhone rumors to chew on? According to various reports, the iPhone 3GS could get an 8GB model just in time for the holidays, and Apple is said to be testing iPhones that support radio-frequency identification (RFID), a tech that allows devices to [...]

Apple’s New iPod touch-Based EasyPay System Explained

Written on November 03, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 16 people have commented

Finally, Apple is beginning the roll-out of its iPod touch-based payment and checkout system for retail stores. According to an exclusive report over at AppleInsider, the Mac maker will begin retiring its current Windows CE-based devices and implementing the new system within a couple of weeks.
The device is an entirely new iPod touch, custom designed [...]

Rumor Has It: China Ontrade Reveals iPhone 4 Part

Written on November 03, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 5 people have commented

China Ontrade, a wholesale parts distributor that ships pre-production parts from upcoming devices, has just posted a part it calls the “Apple iPhone 4 Generation Midboard.” While not particularly pretty to look at, or indicative of any exciting, new features for the upcoming model, the part is tantalizing because it represents the first piece of [...]