Written by Benny Ling | 28 September 2011
Posted in Apple

Apple has up and announced their 4th of October event publicly just as all the rumours said they would by sending out press invites. The event, featuring the tagline "Let's talk iPhone", isn't shy about the subject matter — all iPhone, all the time. The invitation graphics use four iOS icons that we're all so familiar with by now, and the only real question that remains is what sort of exciting new products we'll see. An iPhone 5? Or just an iPhone 4S? Perhaps even both!

Intel has announced news that will hopefully make those fearful of outdated technology sleep a little easier at night: the current Thunderbolt ports on current-model MacBook Pros, iMacs, and MacBook Airs will be compatible with optic-based cables when they're released sometime next year.

Written by Benny Ling | 26 September 2011
Posted in Apple

Apple has now begun to purchase flash memory from Japan in order to reduce a reliance on Samsung products, or so says AppleInsider. It's no secret that there's some sort of bad blood between Samsung and Apple, given all the lawsuits they've been through and the ones that they're currently fighting in the courts, so this just seems like an extension of two companies becoming even more competitive towards each other. Doesn't make any sense to support your enemies, right?

It might not allow you to rent movies or TV shows from the iTunes Store and it might not allow you to stream content to it via Wi-Fi, and it might not even have a HDMI connection, but the original Apple TV from 1996 was still ahead of its time. 1.5Mbps MPEG1 steams, man!

Written by Benny Ling | 23 September 2011
Posted in Apple

Apple is readying some sort of pilot program so that Apple Retail employees can put in some personal time with the iPad. The scheme functions somewhat like a library-based system — employees can take the iPad for periods of up to a week, do what they like with the device in that time, and then bring it back so that other employees get a chance. Seems like an excellent idea — why don't actual libraries implement this sort of thing?

Epic Games has announced that their Unreal Engine Development Kit now supports the Mac, which means that games that were developed using the UDK can now be ported to the Mac without too much trouble. Unreal Tournament 3 for Mac, anyone?

Written by Benny Ling | 22 September 2011
Posted in Apple

All Things Digital brings the good word today that Apple has possibly scheduled a media event for October 4th, where CEO Tim Cook will unveil the newest iPhone of them all, the iPhone 5. The September-October timeframe that we're currently in is also typically the right kind of time for the typical audio/iPod event, but perhaps we'll still hear news of that a little closer to the date (and, if we're lucky, Apple might even pre-announce everything ahead of time).

There's an Apple support article that details how to clean Apple products, answering that age-old question that is asked time and time again. Obvious hints, like disconnecting your Mac from any power sources are included, as are perhaps the not-so-obvious, like no aerosols sprays, solvents, or abrasives.

Written by Benny Ling | 21 September 2011
Posted in Apple

There's a weakness in Directory Services in Lion which means that password hashes can be viewed by non-root users. Additionally, Directory Services can also request a password change for the current user without asking for the current password — perhaps useful if you've forgotten your original password, but otherwise a pretty huge security nightmare for every Lion user.

Apple has released the first-ever update to Final Cut Pro X, which focuses on implementing the top most requested features in the newest version of Apple's flagship video editing product. The update also marks the release of a trial period of Final Cut Pro X, so prospective new users can give it a go without feeling tied in after spending a large amount.

Written by Benny Ling | 20 September 2011
Posted in Apple

9 to 5 Mac kick off discussion on the future of the humble iPod, arguably the device that started it all. Yes, these days we have quite a few different iPod models at quite a few different capacities (all much larger than the original), but surely with advances in technology the market for a portable music player that is just a music player grows smaller every day? Does Apple have to kill off the iPod?

With the release of the Thunderbolt Display and all of the connection standards it unifies, Apple has posted a support article on daisy-chaining Thunderbolt displays. The really bad news is you apparently can't plug a Mini DisplayPort display into one of the Thunderbolt ports on the new Thunderbolt display without another Thunderbolt peripheral in between the two — at least, not if you want the Mini DisplayPort display to work.

Written by Benny Ling | 19 September 2011
Posted in Apple

It's no secret that a few MobileMe features will be killed off with the introduction of iCloud later this year. Unpublicised but used features, like iDisks and system preference syncing — features that not a whole lot of people use, but those that do use them think the world of them. The good news is: these features aren't off the table for some sort of a revival in iCloud.

With the Mac App Store still being pretty young, now is as good a time as any to reflect back on some of the apps that started life on iOS. Apps like the Google Reader client Reeder, or Twitter clients like Echofon, even worldwide successes like Angry Birds.

Written by Benny Ling | 16 September 2011
Posted in Apple

Forget share prices, or market cap, or anything else. The real question is: how much is a brand worth? More importantly, how much is the Apple brand worth? If Brand Fortune are to be believed, quite a lot — somewhere in the vicinity of $40 million. Not quite as high as Google (at $48 million), but second in the world isn't too shabby.

Skype has released a new beta for the Mac, which introduces two things. First, is the new Facebook integration, no doubt as a result of Facebook and Skype getting very cosy together ever since Facebook rolled out that new buddy sidebar list. The second, probably less wanted feature, is ads for nonpaying users.

Written by Benny Ling | 15 September 2011
Posted in Apple

Apple usually update their product lines every 6-9 months, and yet here we are, still stuck with the same MacBook Pros that were released in February. It's not all bad news though if you've been hanging out for a new model with upgraded specs — 9 to 5 Mac say that there's definitely the possibility of upgraded models to be released before the end of the year, perhaps even before the end of the month.

Also from 9 to 5 Mac this morning is news that Apple is supposedly working on an iOS "scanner" app that will utilise the camera in order to digitise documents or whatever else. Apparently the scanner application will also use some form of OCR for text recognition — if this comes to fruition, this will be a very cool usage of cameras in iOS devices.

Written by Benny Ling | 14 September 2011
Posted in Apple

Apple Insider say there's the possibility of a new AirPort Express from Apple, according to developer notes of the AirPort Utility that updates it to improve compatibility for the AirPort Express 802.11n (2nd generation). Various online retailers are also reporting that the AirPort express has been discontinued, and other sites are also reporting that the AirPort express will be out of stock for the next 2-5 weeks, a sure-fire sign that new AirPort Express models are on the way in the near future.

Apparently Final Cut Pro X received such severe backlash on the Mac that users voted with their wallets. The Loop says that sales of Adobe video tools rose by a not-insubstantial 45%, which Adobe say can be attributed to a large number of Final Cut Pro X users switching to Adobe Premiere Pro.