The new Mac Mini

Regarding the Mac mini, some people think they know everything there is to know but there are rumors that a new Mac mini will be announced at Macworld Expo 2009 next week. (January 5-9, 2009)

Many details are vague but we still have no idea if the dimensions of the new mini are different from the existing model.The internal optical drive is going to be changed to a SATA optical drive that can be swapped out for a second SATA hard drive.

Having a second internal hard drive is very useful for the mini in a server role. Using a solution of RAID 1 mirroring becomes very simple.

The new Mac mini won't be made of topped with white plastic like the current model, instead it will be using black plastic and aluminum. The new mini has a "lip" similar to the Time Capsule.

The optical disc slot is hidden under the lip so it won't be obvious in case the owner chooses to have two hard drives instead of a hard and optical drive combo.

Let's hope for all Mac lovers that this rumor is true.

Apple, Microsoft And Google Sued

A law suit has emerged, that could have a sweeping impact on multiple software majors and a host of smaller graphical suite-makers. This law suit has been filled by Cygnus Systems and accuses major companies like Adobe, Google, and Microsoft of having violated their patent by using thumbnails, which Cygnus claims it invented.

To this purpose they have patented a broad-base technology which states "a method and system for storing, navigating, and accessing files within an operating system through the use of a graphical thumbnail representing the video display of the active document within the active application."

This directly affects just about every other graphical software that utilizes thumbnails. Be it Apple’s cover flow or Windows explorer, the number of software that utilizes this particular feature is too vast to list. It even shows up in hardware like mobile phones, iPods, PMPS and all sorts of other devices. If this case goes to court and goes in favor of the company, they could very wind up as one of the richest on the planet. In such cases normally not only is the victor entitled to current expenditures and costs, it can also sue for past damages caused by the use of their patent.

Apple iPod Shuffle Price Slashed

The Apple iPod Shuffle will now cost Rs. 2,700 for the 1GB model - that's down from Rs. 4500. Apple has introduced a new 2 GB model of the iPod shuffle for Rs. 3,200 before taxes."At just Rs. 2,300, the iPod shuffle is the most affordable iPod ever," said EY Yeo, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Apple Asia Pacific. "We've also introduced a new 2GB model that lets music lovers bring even more songs everywhere they go in the impossibly small iPod shuffle."

The iPod shuffle comes in four colors - silver, blue, green and purple with up to 12 hours of continuous audio playback. It syncs seamlessly with iTunes and the "Auto-fill" function allows the iPod shuffle to randomly select songs from a music library and sync them. "With most flash-memory music players, users must use tiny displays and complicated controls to find their music; with iPod shuffle you just relax and it serves up new combinations of your music every time you listen." said EY Yeo.Source

Macbook Air Hacked in Under 2 Minutes

One of the things that Apple has always prided itself over and promoted in no uncertain terms, has been the so-called 'robust security' offered by its OSX operating system. However this supposition of Apple's took a huge beating on Thursday when a team of researchers from Independent Security Evaluators (ISE) managed to hack a MacBook Air in just two minutes using a previously unknown security vulnerability in Apple’s own safari browser.

The people who did the 'hack' were ISE security researchers - Charlie Miller, Jake Honoroff, and Mark Daniel – who were participating in the "PWN to OWN" competition at the CanSecWest security conference, in Vancouver, British Columbia.
In this competition there were 3 laptops, with different OS’s offered for being hacked into. These included an Apple Macbook Air running OS X 10.5.2, a Sony Vaio VGN-TZ37CN running Ubuntu 7.10 and a Fujitsu U810 running Vista Ultimate SP1. Anyone who could successfully hack or exploit these machines would win a $10,000 price from famous security company Tipping Point.
The first to go was of course the Macbook, followed by Windows Vista. Ubuntu stood strong despite repeated attempts.Source

Apple Mulling a Clamshell iPhone

Apple's iPhone launch caused a wave of excitement that even now refuses to die down. The company is now planning to ride on this with a "clamshell iPhone". Yes, "clamshell iPhone" which will be smaller -- likely half the size of the iPhone, but will take a couple of years to go to market.

A touch-screen patent first filed by Apple in the US in September 2006 has given birth to this speculation about Apple mulling a "clamshell iPhone". The patent application, which has been newly disclosed, contains illustrated features including a transparent dual-sided touch-sensitive trackpad cover; meaning the top of the iPhone is covered with a transparent touch panel which when opened reveals an also touch-sensitive inner side.

It also appears from the patent that the "clamshell iPhone" will enable users write in numbers and letters using their fingers. Meanwhile, the patent doesn't talk about any keyboard though it does imply that sensitive controls could be used to create a virtual keyboard.Source

World's Most Expensive iPod up for Sale...!!!!

Charity auctions usually imply that there’s some really cool stuff on sale and that doesn’t really mean it’s all about the arts and crafts or boats and cars, gadgets also have their merit at these functions. It would seem like the world's most popular music player the iPod was also up for grabs at a recent London Charity Auction – the model – the Apple iPod Shuffle. If you’re thinking it was something that you’d see in any store you’d be dead wrong.

What was up on sale at the auction was what they’re calling the ‘worlds most expensive iPod’ which was essentially a diamond studded, 18 karat, white and pink gold iPod Shuffle. Reportedly it has a total of 430 diamonds and was created by Thomas Heyerdahl. It wasn’t just the Shuffle that was diamond encased, the earphones were as well. The device was estimated at about 20,000 pounds that's equivalent to about Rs. 1,639,673.55. Talk about RICH sound quality.Source

Did iPods Cause a Crime Wave?

It's easy to see why iPods would be alluring targets for criminals: The music players are valuable and easy to resell, and people absorbed in their personal soundtracks can be vulnerably oblivious to their surroundings.But could the temptation for stealing iPods be so strong that they're behind an increase in the crime rate? Researchers at a public policy institute say yes.They argue that the tantalizing gadgets are perhaps the main reason U.S. violent crime rose in 2005 and 2006 after declining every year since 1991 - although a close look at the findings suggests the hypothesis has holes.The Urban Institute, a Washington think tank, first raised the subject of an "iCrime wave" last September, and held a panel discussion Tuesday to explore it further. The researchers don't blame iPod maker Apple Inc. or any other device maker for crime, but they do say consumers should demand technologies that would render stolen gadgets useless.Apple - which has explored anti-theft locks in patent filings - had no comment.A key point in the Urban Institute's argument is that robberies - the taking of something by force or the threat of it - had seen dramatic reductions since the 1990s, but jumped in 2005 and 2006. FBI statistics show the robbery rate went from 137 per 100,000 people in 2004 to 141 per 100,000 in 2005 and 149 in 2006. That helped boost the overall rate of violent crime in those years, even as rape rates fell and aggravated assault was generally flat.During those years, iPods were going mainstream. In late 2004, Apple had sold about 5 million iPods. By the end of 2005 that had ballooned to 42 million, and in 2006 the number neared 90 million.One widely accepted theory holds that crime happens when three things come together: A motivated offender encounters a suitable victim and perceives a high chance of getting away with it. And the Urban Institute researchers believe the sudden prevalence of iPods increased all three factors.Source

MP3 Players complete 10 Years this Month

It's a major milestone for MP3 players this month. They complete ten years since introduction of the first MP3 player to be commercially sold -- the MPMan F10. Manufactured by Korean Saehan Information Systems and launched at CeBit ten years ago, the MPMan F10 was imported into North America by Eiger Labs. With 32mb flash storage, the player was capable of storing around 8 songs of 128 kbps quality. Around 91mm tall, 70mm long, and 16.5mm wide (roughly the size of the iPod classic), the F10 was but all of 65 grams approximately. Featuring a tiny LCD display and MegaBass, the player came in five colors. It could be connected to a PC using the bundled parallel port cable. It was powered by two 1.5V AA rechargeable batteries, and came with a docking station for recharging. Showcased first at CeBit 1998, the player aroused immense interest among visitors to the show, and Saehan put it into mass production in May the same year. Initially sold for around $250, prices were slashed to $200 soon after when a new competitor arrived -- the Diamond Multimedia Rio PMP300 (priced at $200 and with similar features). Eiger Labs promptly revisited the device, and introduced the F20 that had a 64 mb capacity, calling it "EigerMan". Till such time as Apple Computer introduced its iconic iPod in 2001, MPMan continued making MP3 players. Two years down the launch of the iPod, Apple started allowing Windows users to connect to their device with the obvious outcome -- iPod sales hit the roof, rivals couldn't keep up, and iPod rule began. Despite their much popular "Walkman" brand, Sony was too busy promoting ATRAC and MiniDiscs to look into its line of MP3 players. While Sony overlooked the iPod's phenomenal success, Saehan could hardly keep up pace, and the rest -- as they say -- is history!Source

Gameloft to Develop 15 Game Titles for iPhone

Gameloft, developer and publisher of games for mobile phones, has confirmed that it will develop over 15 mobile games built on Apple's iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK).Though the SDK was recently released, games will only be available to purchase once the App Store, featuring third party applications that can be downloaded to users' device via WiFi or EDGE, launches in June 2008.
"The iPhone gaming environment opens a new era in mobile gaming and is exactly what we've been waiting for", said Michel Guillemot, President of Gameloft. "The Apple iPhone has changed the way consumers perceive and interact with their mobile phones, and the release of the SDK is a tremendous opportunity for Gameloft to apply its creative and innovative approach to mobile gaming," said Guillemot. "Due to our investment in creating one of the most advanced and creative development studios to date, we are ideally positioned today to seamlessly integrate new opportunities and quickly produce games that are as evolutionary as they are enjoyable."
Gameloft has already worked with Apple developing mobile games that are uniquely adapted to the iPod. It reportedly sells over 200,000 games per day throughout 80 countries and creates games for mobile handsets equipped with Java, Brew or Symbian technology.Source

Most Admired Global Company: Apple

Apple Computer, the maker of iPhone, iPod and Macs, has topped 20 most admired global companies in a list prepared by Fortune magazine.PepsiCo, headed by India-born Indra Nooyi, at 13th position is more admired than archrival Coca-Cola at 19th spot, according to the list published in the latest edition of the US business magazine, famed for its authoritative Fortune 500 lists of US and global corporations ranked on gross revenue.Apple in the most admired list is followed at second place by General Electric, the diversified industrial conglomerate, while Japanese auto major Toyota occupies the third place.Legendary investor Warren Buffett's holding company, Berkshire Hathaway, is the fourth most admired company.Others in the top 10 include courier firm FedEx at sixth place, Johnson & Johnson, known for its baby products at seventh place, luxury car maker BMW at ninth place and software giant Microsoft at tenth place.Aircraft maker Boeing is way down at 16th, the world's largest retailer Wal-Mart at 17th and Japanese automaker Honda Motor at 18th.Fortune said it surveyed over 600 companies in 65 industries for the list. It partnered with global management consulting firm Hay Group for the study. Over 3,500 businesspeople were asked to vote for the companies that they admired most, from any industry.The companies were ranked on the basis of eight attributes - innovation, people management, use of corporate assets, social responsibility, quality of management, financial soundness, long-term investment and quality of products/services.In Fortune's list of America's most admired companies, Apple is again at the top, followed by Berkshire and GE at second and third place respectively. Pepsi figures but not in the top 20, for whom the rankings have been given.Adobe Systems, a software company led by Indian American Shantanu Narayen, has also made it to the club, but way down among the 317 companies listed.Source

Telescope lens for the iPhone

The iPhone is a a fantastically cool phone but it’s photography capabilities are not exactly bleeding edge (paper cut sharp at best), could the iPhone Cellphone Telescope-Snap be the answer.

This iPhone telescope is made to help you extend your iPhone viewing distand, capture the excitement of instant moment far from you conveniently.

Incorporate a new design to allow ray effectively avoid the contortion of image, and makes the super wide angle, the larger luminous flux, the higher visual acuteness, good for color reduction, which makes the high quality of photography.

It doesn’t add anything to the aesthetics of your phone but it does overcome one of it’s shortcomings but do you really want to ruin the image of the coolest phone with a snap-on?Source

First 3rd Party Game for the iPhone.....!!!!!

With the announcement of iPhone SDK, there's every sign of a promising future for Apple. As it turns out, Electronic Arts (EA) announced "the first 3rd party game for the iPhone". Spore, an already famous arcade game, will now be available for the iPhone.However, it will not be until September that anyone will get to see a glimpse. With this EA also confirmed other games under development, making use of the new iPhone SDK. According to sources from EA, they are thrilled to make use of the iPhone interface, and the result may be a decision to extend these games to other Apple products.Source

Google Gears Goes Mobile

For those of you who aren’t exactly sure what Google Gears is capable of or what it is – it's an open source browser extension that lets developers create web applications that can run offline. Gears provides three key features:

• A local server, to cache and serve application resources (HTML, JavaScript, images, etc.) without needing to contact a server
• A database, to store and access data from within the browser
• A worker thread pool, to make web applications more responsive by performing expensive operations in the background

What this essentially means is that in case you’re one of those people who like to take their work with them wherever they go and that would include places that have no access to the net, Gears will allow you workaholics to get things down without being connected.At the moment since it's still in a developmental stage, Gears is being designed for only Windows mobile devices that run on a Windows Mobile 5 and 6 OS. This mobile version supports Internet Explorer on Windows Mobile handsets and is restricted to just such devices. The devices would also have to have applications that are compatible with Gears in order for it to function correctly. Considering this is just an early phase, I’m sure it wont be too long (hopefully) before they’re able to adapt Google Gears for other Operating Systems and handsets.
This means that other smartphone users, such as those using Apple's iPhone, or people using other popular mobile browsers, such as Opera, won't be able to use Google Gears. But Google has said that it plans to expand support to other browsers and cell phone platforms, including its own Android software.Source

MacBook Pro upgraded to Penryn

Apple today updated its popular MacBook and MacBook Pro notebook lines with the latest Intel Core 2 Duo "Penryn" processors, larger hard drives and 2GB of memory standard in most models. In addition, MacBook Pro includes NVIDIA graphics processors, now with up to 512MB of video memory, and Apple’s Multi-Touch trackpad, first introduced in MacBook Air.The new MacBook Pro features an Intel C2D 2.6 GHz processor with 6MB of shared L2 cache; up to 4GB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM memory and up to a 300GB hard drive, plus NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics with up to 512MB of video memory. Every MacBook Pro now includes a trackpad with Multi-Touch gesture support for pinch, rotate and swipe, which allows users to zoom and rotate photos in iPhoto or Aperture 2 or browse web pages in Safari. The laptop also sports an illuminated keyboard that makes it ideal for dimly lit environments such as airplanes, studios or conference halls and a built-in ambient light sensor, which automatically adjusts the brightness of the keys as well as the brightness of the display for optimal visibility.
The new Macbooks now come in three models and include faster processors and larger hard drives across the line; sleek white 2.1 GHz and 2.4 GHz models with 120GB or 160GB 5400 rpm hard drives and a black 2.4 GHz model with a 250GB 5400 rpm hard drive, previously only available as an option. The 2.4 GHz MacBook models ship with 2GB of memory standard, expandable up to 4GB across the line. The LCD panel common to all these 3 laptops is a 13-inch glossy widescreen display,
Apart from these changes, Every MacBook and MacBook Pro includes a built-in iSight video camera for video conferencing on-the-go; Apple’s MagSafe Power Adapter that magnetically connects the power cord and safely disconnects when under strain; the latest generation of 802.11n wireless networking for up to five times the performance and twice the range of 802.11g; built-in 10/100/1000 BASE-T Gigabit Ethernet for high-speed networking; Bluetooth; analog and digital audio inputs and outputs; USB 2.0; FireWire and a built-in Super Drive. Source

1 GB Ipod Shuffle for just $49 !!! A 2 GB model also unveiled.....

Apple has announced that its iPod shuffle is now priced at $49 and that it is introducing a new 2GB model of the iPod shuffle for $69.The iPod shuffle is half a cubic inch in volume, weighs half an ounce, features an aluminum design with a built-in clip and comes in five colors - silver, blue, green, purple and a RED special edition."At just $49, the iPod shuffle is the most affordable iPod ever," said Greg Joswiak, Apple's vice president of Worldwide iPod Product Marketing. "The new 2GB model lets music lovers bring even more songs everywhere they go in the impossibly small iPod shuffle."

The $49 1GB iPod shuffle is available immediately through the Apple Store , Apple's retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers while the 2GB iPod shuffle will be available later this month for a suggested retail price of $69.InfoCourtesy: Tech2

A Competitor for Macbook Air

Apple's much-hyped "MacBook Air" may finally have found its competitor in Lenovo's ThinkPad X300 -- at least that's what analysts are saying.
Like the MacBook Air, the ThinkPad X300 boasts an ultra-thin frame though it weighs in at around 3.12 pounds, which is heavier than the very light-weight MacBook Air.
Both the Air and the ThinkPad X300 sport a 13.3-inches wide-screen and a full keyboard.
But the Air lacks: an optical drive, a network port, extra USB ports (it has only one), and removable battery. By contrast, the ThinkPad X300 is a typical road warrior -- what with a built-in DVD drive, three USB ports, and a removable battery.
MacBook Air users cannot upgrade memory on the device, and there's no integrated support for EV-DO or HSDPA. By comparison, the ThinkPad X300 comes with an Ethernet networking jack, and can be customized with a cell-phone modem or GPS.
There's yet another advantage for ThinkPad X300 users; they have the option to choose between either Windows XP or Windows Vista.
Meanwhile, Lenovo's ThinkPad X300 comes with a 64GB SSD (Solid State Drive) only, which might be the reason for the ramped up price; somewhere between $2,500 and $2,800. By comparison, Apple's MacBook Air, when equipped with a 80GB hard disk drive (HDD), carries a lower price tag, i.e. $1,800.
However, add to the MacBook Air a 64GB SSD, and it comes for not less than $3,000, which is higher than the price of the ThinkPad X300.
While the ThinkPad X300 has almost all the features required to beat the hell out of Apple's MacBook Air; there's one drawback -- its processor speed. The notebook includes a 1.2GHz Core 2 Duo processor. Whereas, the MacBook Air incorporates 1.6GHz and 1.8GHz Core 2 Duo processors.
All said, the X300's 12W processor is believed to be more power-efficient than the Air's 20W processors, in turn leading to greater battery life.
Citing from a Business Week report, the development of the ThinkPad X300 has taken nearly 20 months from the original concept to production. The mandate for the notebook is not so much to be a revenue spinner for Lenovo as it is to be a "halo" product for the company, somewhat like a MacBook Air is for Apple Computer.
In a statement, Lenovo Chairman, Yang Yuanqing said that they want to send out the message that if there's any company in the industry that can continuously develop the most inventive and best-quality products with efficiency, it has to be Lenovo. Besides, they also want to send firepower against arch rivals, HP and Dell. Of which, Dell is believed to feel not at all threatened by Lenovo, not at least in the US market.
There's no word yet on availability and pricing of this notebook. Info Courtesy: Techtree

Mac Book Air launched in INDIA

Apple today unveiled what's claimed to be the world's thinnest notebook, the MacBook Air, in India.

Angeline Tan, product marketing manager of Apple, introduced the notebook here, which measures 4 mm at its thinnest point.

The MacBook Air was first launched at the MacWorld expo in San Francisco on January 15.

In India, it will ship in two weeks through Apple authorized resellers and dealers for a suggested retail price of Rs 96,100 ($2,421).

The features of the MacBook Air include a 13.3-inch liquid crystal display, a full-size backlit keyboard and a built-in video camera.

MacBook Air delivers up to five hours of battery life and includes Wi-Fi networking.

With an Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 1.6 or 1.8 GHz of processing power, Apple's standard model contains a 1.8-inch hard drive offering 80GB of storage.

Source: Tech 2