Despite all the rumors flying about an impending Apple tablet release, analysts don’t expect we’ll see one at the glamorous September Apple event. Instead, you should be looking for an iPod Touch/Nano refresh that includes cameras for both models and possibly a video cam on the new iPod Touch, bringing the flagship mp3 player in line with the iPhone.
The Apple tablet rumor got a whole lot bigger back when Borders posted a survey regarding ereaders that referenced an Apple device. Since then it’s been a lot of speculation, but nothing truly official has surfaced. The camera rumor, on the other hand, has more substantial evidence. There are countless cases with camera ports all in the same place, along with insider info that the cam is coming. I’d say it’s definitely a safer bet.
There’s also the nature of a tablet release for Apple. It has to be good. It has to be really good. The netbook craze is already starting to decline as the models get stuffed with more and more features and look more and more like actual notebooks. Convincing the world to reconsider what is essentially an MID will take an exceptional product, and that’s something Apple may not be ready to roll out by September.
A notice to all the perverts out there: Don’t get any smarter. It truly warms my heart to see you morons doing something stupid enough to land your own ass in jail. Case in point – Raymond Miller, an aforementioned pervert from Connecticut, recently took his laptop to be serviced at one of Apple’s Genius bars. The local genius found, among other things, pictures of ten to thirteen year-old children in compromising positions.
What’s worse is that Miller brought the computer to the Genius bar specifically because he was having problems with image files. Yes, you read that correctly. I’ll say again, please don’t get smarter, perverts. Miller was promptly arrested while the Genius attempted to “fix” his computer.
Possession of child pornography is a class-B felony in Connecticut, where Miler will be serving a minimum five-year sentence if he’s convicted.
When Apple bumped the 13-inch unibody Macbook up to “Pro” status, you knew they were planning a refresh for white polycarbonate version. It’s been the lone wolf sporting the Macbook name for some time now, and the body design is three years old.
That’s all about to change, according to a rumor posted at AppleInsider. Apparently Apple is going to redesign the Macbook and add a few more models to the lineup. The polycarbonate Macbook, it turns out, is one of Apple’s best selling devices. In fact, it beats out just about everything other than the iMac on Apple’s online store. That’s probably due to the $999 price tag. New Mac users find the price appealing enough to make the switch, and frankly, it’s a pretty good deal.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see this happen within 4-6 months. Adding an even lower model would allow Apple to continue to perform well in the face of economic crises and steal more users away from Windows machines.
Organizing your iPhone apps can be a bit of a pain, mostly because the OS won’t allow empty space between your apps, even while your organizing. The result is something like a tile puzzle as you try to determine where your apps will go if you drag Skype out of place.
There have been some rumors that iTunes 9 houses a simpler method, but none of that is official and there’s always the question: when? If you’re willing to jailbreak your phone, the answer could be simple: now. Indie Mac developer Jeff Stieler put together a little app called Movement, which will display your current apps side by side in panes. You can then drag and drop any app you choose, even multiple apps at once, to any page you like. When you save the changes to your iPhone or iPod Touch, the program also gives you the option to backup your changes so you can revert at any time.
Let me reiterate that this requires jailbreaking to work and is only available for Mac. If you’re in desperate need of a simple organization tool, this is a great candidate. If you aren’t the tinkering type, though, I’d probably steer clear.
I’ve been curious to see the Blackberry Storm 2 in action for some time now, and today I thought I’d gotten my wish. Twitter user Salmondrin (whose account has apparently been pulled) has put together a decent video detailing the tech behind the Storm 2’s new screen, and he’s made it pretty easy to understand for the layman. You can find the video
For the tech savvy user, which I’m assuming most readers here to be, the video leaves a lot to be desired. It’s definitely a nice introduction – Salmondrin gives us the CDMA/GSM breakdown (both models coming, the former on Verizon, the latter on AT&T), confirms Wi-Fi, and describes in detail the differences between the original Storm and the Storm 2. What he leaves out, though, is a thorough demonstration of the new screen, which is really what sets the phone apart from both the original Storm and Apple’s iPhone.
Please don’t misunderstand me. Salmondrin does describe the way the screen works. It’s a piezo-electric screen, meaning it’s stiff when there’s no power running through it, but the screen yields to a more squishy, clickable form when presented with a current. Unlike the original Storm, which could only be clicked in one location at a time, the PE screen allows multiple point clicking, which is a big win if you’re typing fairly quickly. What isn’t clear, though, is how well typing works in that situation. Salmondrin keeps says multiple times without actually revealing anything new that the Storm 2 is better than the Storm and better than the iPhone.
I’m not here to say that the iPhone’s screen is the best thing I’ve ever held, but it’s responsive, quick, and despite my big fingers I’m able to type fairly accurately. Part of the speed, to be honest, comes from the fact that I’m not actually pushing anything. Requiring that kind of pressure is actually worse for someone with big hands because it’s harder to keep a good grip on the phone and reproduce the pressure in quick successive strokes. Now I haven’t held a Storm 2, so I don’t know how well it works. Salmondrin has, and he could have told us. He could have demoed the keyboard by typing words with letters in close proximity, like “r” and “t”. Then we would have at least seen the radius of sensitivity with each press. After watching the video it’s still not clear whether the keyboard is intentionally laid over a grid of PE squares, where one square corresponds to one key, or if it’s a sort of spongey plane that can click just about anywhere.
Instead, all we got was a few shots of him clicking the screen in places and crowing about how great that feature is. Is it an improvement over the original Storm? Sure. But that’s true of most any touch screen. Is it really the “huge advantage” Salmondrin claims? I have no idea. He didn’t demo the thing enough for me to tell.
Despite all the rumors flying about an impending Apple tablet release, analysts don’t expect we’ll see one at the glamorous September Apple event. Instead, you should be looking for an iPod Touch/Nano refresh that includes cameras for both models and possibly a video cam on the new iPod Touch, bringing the flagship mp3 player in line with the iPhone.
