Apple History: How the Modern Apple Macintosh was Born

Ray — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:55:50 +0000

As Mac OS X is the current version of the MacOS, one might say it’s one of the most advanced operating systems currently marketed. It is based on a previous architecture, however. Though many individuals think only of Microsoft Windows and the MacOS when they hear graphical user interface, there was once another technology on the block.

The NeXTSTEP programming framework was created by in 1985, and involved Apple founder Steve Jobs after he was forced out of his previous company. Though the resulting devices built around this architecture only sold around 50,000 units, the technology developed for it was very much ahead of its time.

When Steve Jobs reconciled with Apple, the company set up to market the NeXTSTEP technology was acquired by his original firm. When it was rediscovered later, the framework was decided to be usable for a later project. Therefore, much of the programming environment became a base product for MacOS X.

Apple lays the smackdown on Khalid

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:23:10 +0000

It’s about time Apple’s super-restrictive control over its ITunes store actually work towards the benefit of its users. It was recently announced that Apple shut down Khalid Shaikh and his legion of spam-happy Pakistani programmers, tossing out more than 900 of his useless apps from the store.
Khalid and his gang, operating under the company name “Perfect Acumen”, had generated over 943 apps in a span of just nine months, most of which were either useless, overpriced, and/or infringements on other peoples’ intellectual property.

943 apps in just nine months? What was Apple thinking? While they are busy oppressing fart-knockers and photo wobblers, they somehow manage to let some sleaze bag spam their entire store in, as Khalid himself describes it, an attempt to “minimize value and maximize monetization”. Hey, Steve, what’s up with that?

Playstation 3 Network back online after outage

jessica — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 15:52:25 +0000

On March 01, Sony announced that PS3 consoles, except the PS3 Slim, were not able to connect with the Playstation Network because due to a bug in the consules clock. What’s worse is that simply turning on the consoles can cause “errors in some functionality, such as recording obtained trophies, and not restoring some data.” As such, Sony advised staying away from the PS3 until they can fix the problem, hopefully within 24 hours.

As with any hi-tech service outage, it’s appropriate to look at whether the official response was adequate. In this case, Sony’s obviously was not.

I first got wind of the problem at around 3 p.m. PST, reading a Twitter update from Game Informer’s. I learned PS3 Trophy information was gone, and I couldn’t play any games. That was two hours before Sony itself acknowledged the problem and said it was looking into it.

Before I knew it, Sony customers blew the story wide open. Reports of internal clock issues were everywhere, mainly stemming from the popular gaming forum NeoGAF. By midnight, one user had posted a FAQ on who was affected, what to do and what’s at risk by turning on your console.

That’s exactly what Sony should’ve done. Instead, the company waited until Monday morning, when spokesman Patrick Seybold posted a message explaining the errors. That was the last we heard from Sony. Among the perfectly valid questions that were unanswered: How will a fix will be delivered to people who can’t go online? Will people get their trophies back?

Sony still has some explaining to do, and gamers deserve an apology not just for the outage itself, but for being kept in the dark…

Sony has since then officially fixed the bug and now the playstation network back up and running.

Apple iPad Pre-order rumored to go on sale this week!

Ray — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 19:46:19 +0000

As most of you know Apple has announced the iPad. Apple said that the iPad wifi will start to ship in late March. Rumors on App Advice, say Apple will start the iPad pre-sale in the coming week as early as late February.

Since the iPad is a new kind of device, I’m not sure if I will just use it at home or actually take it with me on the road. In latter case I would need the 3G option or find a wifi hotspot. My geek hormones, responsible for the urge to own what’s new, will most likely win and I will just put in my pre-order the iPad as soon as Apple lets me and get the Wifi iPad.

New Apple iPod classic 160GB on Sale!

George — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 19:04:04 +0000

The newest iPod classic saves up to 160GB of storage, good for up to 40,000 songs, 200 hours of video, or 25,000 photos. You also get 36 hours of battery life so you can enjoy your music and movies for hours on end. The new iPod also features 6 hours of video playback when fully charged.

The iPod has a crisp and clear 2.5-inch display which makes video come alive. You can purchase or rent movies, buy TV shows, and download video podcasts from the iTunes Store, then sync them to your iPod classic to watch anywhere you wish. Finding what you want to watch or listen to is as easy as a click of the wheel. You can use it to browse by album art with Clover Flow or navigate your songs and videos by playlist, artist, album, and much more.

Apple iPod classic 160GB also comes equipped with classic games, Vortex, iQuiz, and Klondike and you can purchase games from the iTunes Store. The iPod classic uses iTunes to sync the photos you have in iPhoto on a Mac or PC. You can view photo slideshows complete with music and transitions on iPod classic, or play them on a TV using an optional Apple component or composite AV cable. It comes with a limited one-year limited warranty with single incident of complimentary telephone technical support. It measures 2.4 x 0.4 x 4.1 inches and weighs a mere 5 ounces.

Apple’s iPhone holds on to AT&T for awhile longer?!

George — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 20:31:43 +0000

The popular Apple iPhone is widely expected to end its exclusive agreement with AT&T this year and allow Verizon and possibly other U.S. carriers to offer the iPhone.

Analyst like Jonathan Chaplin, with Credit Suisse, said today, “Our analysis suggests that Apple will eventually sell the device at all carriers. However, they say that Apple will stay with AT&T for another 12-18 months before it opens the flood gates with other carriers.

Like most analysts and consumers, Chapin thought that Verizon could begin offering the iPhone this summer, but now has evidence that the situation has changed. However, he did not go into detail.

Amazon acquires Touchco, a touch screen start-up

Ray — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 14:50:43 +0000

Amazon has reportedly acquired Touchco, a New York start-up specializing in touch screen technology in an effort to play catch-up with the Apple iPad.

The New York Times reported, the touch-screen technology is developed by Touchco and is substantially cheaper than the capacitative touch screens used for the iPad, their cost is at around $10 per square foot.�

The technology is called interpolating force-sensitive resistance (IFSR), the technique uses resistors to detect varying levels of pressure, and requires very little power. The touch screens alllow the device to detect an unlimited number of simultaneous touch points, and to distinguish between the touch of a finger and the touch of a pen.

The Kindle and Sony Reader’s displays are made by E-ink. Amazon has resisted adding touch screen technology, on the basis that this would affect legibility.Touchco’s technology has claimed to be completely transparent, so the screen clarity would not be affected. It would also allow the Kindle to move to color screens, as E-ink doesn’t expect a color screen until next year.

Korean telecomm company hints at iPhone 4G release date

Wendy — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 18:05:49 +0000

iPhone 4G (leaked photo)

Reports from a Korean telecomm company are hinting that Apple will issue them a next-generation iPhone (4G) this April, to sell to their larger corporate customers. A top executive at KT , the company’s #2 phone company, says the spring time pre-release will serve as a “dry run” for a general public roll-out in June. �

The same top exec. claims the 4G will feature OLED screens, live video and chat capabilities, and a removable battery. Analysts speculate that the early release is an attempt to beat out the faster, Android-based handsets with similar features (e.g. the Nexus One). KT has already sold over 1/4 million iPhone 3G’s since November ‘09, and predict a total of half-a-million sales (3- and 4G units) by year’s end.

Amazon’s Kindle e-reader sales over 3 million units

George — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 17:37:17 +0000

When the iPad was announced, people immediately started claiming it was going to destroy the Kindle. The Kindle has been at the top of the list for e-readers since it’s launch on just about every blog site. And yet, the Kindle is still around. Despite all it’s competion the Kindle has sold over 3 million units and continues to hold an audience.

No one expected the Kindle to sell that many e-readers. In fact, Analysts thought the device would barely nab 2.5 million sales by the end of 2010, which puts Amazon ahead of the game.

With that said the Kindle will likely see a huge drop in sales this year over last year, but that doesn’t make Amazon’s accomplishments any less impressive.

Will the Apple iPad ship with a camera?

alyssa — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:46:14 +0000

Does the iPad have a digital video camera? Looking at a screen-grab from the official video of the event shows nothing but a small dot above the display, opposite of the home button. These showed an iPad locked down in a security frame, and you could clearly see the camera in it’s bezel.

Still not convinced? Checkout this this screenshot from the iPad emulator in the new SDK (software development kit)?

It sure looks like the iPad thinks it has a camera… The last, and oddest, piece of the puzzle comes from Mac and iPod repair company Mission Repair. The company has already received replacement parts for fixing iPads, even though the 1st device doesn’t ship until March. On the company’s blog, employee Ryan Arter has posted pictures which show a spot for a camera in the main iPad frame:

This is accompanied by a picture of the frame alongside the camera from a MacBook. A perfect fit. The only thing that seems weird on this last point is that Apple is already sending out parts. Well their not. The company who makes the parts, in this case frames, are. Not Apple.

So why didn’t Steve Jobs announce the camera already? We think Apple is leaving it out to meet the rather severe price restrictions it has set for the product line. Jobs is most likely using the 1 gen iPad as a prototype on stage, just as he did with the iPhone. A prototype would be likely to have the camera intact.

If everything adds up, we’d guess that the first generation iPad will still ship without a camera. After all, did all the reporters who got hands-on time with the iPad after the launch really all miss an iSight camera? Probrably not. And remember the third-gen iPod Touch, which was expected to have a camera and then shipped without it, but with a camera-shaped hole.

Perhaps Apple will pull a “one more thing” closer to the launch date, or not.