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Sony Rumored To Be Looking For Steve Jobs Movie Rights

Sony Pictures is apparently “in the process” of making a large offer for the feature movie rights of the upcoming biography of Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, according to Mike Fleming of Deadline. The move isn’t surprising, and Sony has recent history of turning business success books into successful drama movies in The Social Network and Moneyball.

I’m hearing the deal is $1 million against $3 million and that Mark Gordon will be the biopic’s producer. But this will be an MG360 project, which is the movie production partnership between Gordon and Management 360.

The release of Walter Isaacson’s authorised biography of Steve Jobs was this week moved forward to October 24th after Steve Jobs passed away this past Wednesday. Based on over 40 interviews and over 100 conversations with friends, family and competitors, the biography covers 448 pages. Walter Isaacson’s previous biographies include those of Albert Einstein, Henry Kissinger and Benjamin Franklin.

[Via The Next Web]

New Apple TV Model References Found in iOS 5

In our “Let’s talk iPhone” event rumor roundup, we noted Apple could announce a new Apple TV on stage. Earlier this year, a number of separate reports have suggested Apple was working on a new Apple TV with A5 CPU (the same of iPad 2 and iPhone 4S) to enhance the device’s processing capabilities and allow for full 1080p playback. The current Apple TV model packs and A4 processor (iPad, iPhone 4) and plays back video up to 720p, but as we know the October 4th event didn’t see any Apple TV updates among iPod, iOS 5, iCloud and iPhone 4S announcements. A rumor from July even suggested Apple was working on a new video format called HD+ to launch this fall in the iTunes Store alongside a new Apple TV model.

According to a code string found in iOS 5 by 9to5mac, a new AppleTV3,1 is in the works, and it should be an updated version with upgraded internals such as the aforementioned A5 processor. The existing Apple TV model is referenced as AppleTV2,1 – Apple typically uses this kind of references to prepare iOS for upcoming devices. References in the iOS filesystem are never 100% accurate, but new devices found in the past through code strings have turned out to be real most of the time.

With Apple pushing towards 1080p video content with the new iPhone 4S camera and AirPlay Mirroring made possible by the A5 CPU, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see a refreshed Apple TV with faster CPU and more powerful video processing capabilities. As a side note, Apple recently started selling the current-gen Apple TV in more European countries.

iPhone 4S Now Available for Pre-order

The iPhone 4S is now avaialble for pre-order at Apple.com | UPDATE: store.apple.com is struggling to process orders due to high demand. See below for carrier websites as alternatives.

  • AT&T: We’re hearing reports that their site isn’t any better off than Apple’s. You can give it shot — we also hear that due to the volume of requests, Apple is sending customers reservation #’s to complete their orders at a later time.
  • Sprint: When we last checked, Apple was telling new Sprint customers to visit retail stores (only previous customers are eligible to upgrade to the iPhone 4S). Sprint’s website, however, is taking orders for new customers and offers AppleCare+ for $99, and will ship Oct 14th - 15th if you get in.
  • Verizon: Verizon’s site is holding up well (you can probably check out now without issues), but they don’t offer the $99 AppleCare+ plan (there are monthly Verizon equipment plans instead, and you can decline insurance).

It’s dangerous to go alone. With Siri, it’s like having your own Navi in your cap. It understands natural speech, and has the capability to learn your voice over time. Siri is your personal assistant, and is only avaialble on the iPhone 4S.

With the 4S, available in white and black in 16 GB, 32 GB, and 64 GB models ($199, $299, $399 respectively) on AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon, you’re bound to find adventure with limitless access to the world’s GSM networks no matter what carrier you choose. But no sword is good without a shield. Apple’s AppleCare+ will give you up to two occurrences of aciddental damage for quick repairs.

The iPhone 4S is everything you could have wanted in the iPhone 5. Dual-core 1 GHz A5 processor. 8 MP camera customed designed to give you the sharpest pictures. A brand new antenna that switches to give you the best signal. And the best part? It’ll be on your doormat in a week.

*  *  *

On the fence? I personally consider the iPhone 4S to be a significant upgrade in both hardware and software. iOS 5 may be old news for the geeks “beta-testing” the software over the summer, but in reality it’s brand new software that adds many layers of functionality to Apple’s mobile devices. Combined with the the iPhone 4S, you’re getting everything you wanted in the iPhone 5, sans the screen you were promised by wild rumors and speculation, and not by Apple.

Remember the 3GS update? It was a serious update, and we’re seeing the same thing happen to the 4S. If you have an iPhone 3G or 3GS, I wholeheartedly recommend the update. It’s everything you love about your Apple phone, but better. If you’re hung up on the plan, I suggest reading our very brief rundown. TiPb says that the iPhone 4S upgrade is a no-brainer for anything less than the iPhone 4.

If you need additional convincing, Jim Dalrymple can help.

iPhone 4S Voice and Data Plans: AT&T vs. Sprint vs. Verizon→

iPhone 4S Voice and Data Plans: AT&T vs. Sprint vs. Verizon

If you’re looking for the cheapest possible monthly deal, Sprint wins, with a total monthly cost of $99.99 for 900 minutes, unlimited texting, and unlimited data.

Excellent roundup of plan prices from PC Magazine. Contrary to the above, what I’ve found is that you can get the cheapest plan on AT&T, but you’re only going to get 450 minutes and 200 MB of data without a text messaging plan to pull it off. No frills here, but you’d only have to pay $55 a month. If you’re on WiFi a majority of the time, your friends have iPhones (for iMessage), and have good AT&T coverage, this is your budget plan.

The best overall plan would go to Sprint. The nights and weekends given are good, 450 minutes, and unlimited data and text messaging will net you a solid plan for $80 a month. Pricey, but cheaper than AT&T and Verizon for similar upgrades. Keep in mind the “unlimited data” is around 5 GB, though this was true for Verizon as well when they carried unlimited plans.

If you want the best coverage, Verizon is likely going to be your choice. I have never had a signal problem with Verizon no matter where I ended up in my travels, although call quality is lacking in my opinion. Verizon is a good choice if you want better text message flexibility (250 messages for example) where AT&T gives you none, although you don’t have the same choices with data use.

[via OS X Daily]

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Steve Jobs: 1955 - 2011

Apple:

We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today.
Steve’s brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve.

His greatest love was for his wife, Laurene, and his family. Our hearts go out to them and to all who were touched by his extraordinary gifts.

We’ll miss you Steve. On behalf of everyone at MacStories, thank you.

Real Racing’s “Party Play” To Bring Split Screen Multiplayer with AirPlay Mirroring

One of the lesser publicised new features coming in iOS 5 is AirPlay Mirroring, a new functionality that enables an app to connect to an Apple TV and mirror its contents on to the connected TV. It effectively allows users to show their iPad or iPhone screen on a TV without the HDMI cable as is currently required. Back in June, Apple’n’Apps posted a video of how it worked and Engadget showed off Angry Birds Rio HD and Real Racing 2 HD being played on a TV through AirPlay Mirroring.

In June Firemint announced that it will be bringing an optimised AirPlay experience to the app, and today they are expanding upon that announcement, revealing ‘Party Play’. Using AirPlay and wireless local multiplayer, ‘Party Play’ in Real Racing 2 will enable up to 4 players to play together in a split screen match streamed to a TV through AirPlay.

The only downside is that it will require a host player to be using an iPad 2 or the newly announced iPhone 4S (this is due to the requirement of the A5 processor when using AirPlay Mirroring). The other players can be using any other iOS device that supports Real Racing 2 or Real Racing 2 HD - you can even have a mix of iPhones, iPads and iPod touches. Firemint is also promising that the update including ‘Party Play’ will also come with “gorgeous graphical enhancements that make use of the iPad 2 & iPhone 4S A5 processor”.

Jump the break to view a promo video of Real Racing 2’s ‘Party Play’ mode.

Read more

Apple’s iPhone Event: More Details And Some Things We Missed

As with every Apple event and keynote, there is a lot of information disseminated in a short period of time. Whilst we have already covered most of the information covered in yesterday’s iPhone event (just scroll the MacStories.net homepage to see how much there was), it’s time to have a roundup of what we missed and add some more details on information that we only briefly mentioned previously.

The iPhone 4S Camera

Devin Coldewey of TechCrunch has an excellent recap of the new and improved camera featured in the iPhone 4S. If you want a really in-depth understanding of all the features of it, be sure to jump over and read his article. The key points to take away though, are that it has an 8 megapixel camera (up from 5 MP that the iPhone 4 has) and can record 1080p video (the iPhone 4 could only handle 720p). Those two specifications are clearly the headline grabbers, but arguably more important is the improved sensor from Omnivision in the camera.

Apple claims this sensor features “next-generation backside illumination” which allows 73% more light and more light on the sensor means better quality images. Apple has posted some unedited iPhone 4S photos that show how great pictures can look, and they are certainly a notch above the quality of iPhone 4 photos. When Phil Schiller spoke at the event yesterday, he made note of how the sensor was “1/3rd faster”, and as Coldewey notes, this likely refers to the speed at which images can be processed. With the combination of the powerful A5 processor, new sensor and improved GPU, the iPhone 4S could be up to a second faster than other smartphones at processing an image.

The most important part of a camera is… the photographer — but right after that is the lens. And the lens of the iPhone 4 was already pretty solid for a camera phone: F/2.8 (apparently limited to F/3) at about 30mm equivalent focal length. The new one is f/2.4, about half a stop better, which doesn’t sound like much but at this point of the aperture scale counts for a lot. It’s a pretty big increase in the total amount of light hitting the sensor.

If you’ve ever tried taking a video with the iPhone 4 when in motion, you’ll have noticed how shaky the footage can turn out to be. The iPhone 4S features real-time stabilisation, and whilst not much is known about how it works, Coldewey presumes it will be “electronic stabilisation based on live image analysis” thanks to the A5’s power. We won’t really know how well this works until people try it out for themselves, but Apple has posted a demo of the new feature.

Read more

iPhone 4S First Impressions Focus on Speed Improvements

Earlier today, Apple announced the new iPhone 4S, an upgrade to the existing iPhone 4 with improved A5 processor, new 8 MP camera with better optics, faster download speed on 3G, Bluetooth 4.0, and more. You can read more about the iPhone 4S in our general overview; however, members of the press who were invited to Apple’s media event in Cupertino have begun posting their first impressions and hands-ons about the iPhone 4S. It appears this time around Apple won’t let journalists take photos or videos in the hands-on area – possibly to avoid noise hiccups with Siri, the new voice assistant, shown on video.

Engadget notes the iPhone 4S is faster than the previous model, with faster loading times when navigating between pages and opening the camera application (which seemed faster in the BBC demo of Siri, too). Furthermore, Engadget was also able to test the new voice assistant, Siri:

The most impressive part was the demo of Siri, the new assistant that lets you do just about anything you can do on your phone – but with your voice. We tried to psych it out with a bunch of random requests, including the history of Chester, Vermont (a lovely town) and the best Ramen places in San Francisco. Siri never faltered, never missed a beat. It worked as well as Scott’s demo up on the stage. There’s nothing better to say than that. We even sent ourselves a few text messages, which Siri transcribed to a T. Of course, the lady on the other end still sounds eerily robotic, but we’re hoping for smoother responses from the alien within in a future update.

Jim Dalrymple at The Loop covers the differences in antenna design:

What is a bit different are the number of black bands that are on the iPhones. The current model has three bands — one on each side on the bottom, and one on the top. The iPhone 4S has four bands — two on the top and two on the bottom.

The bands are where Apple houses the antennas for the device. The Wi-Fi, wireless and Bluetooth technologies use these areas. It’s not clear at this point if Apple moved any antennas or what they added the extra band.

Slashgear was also impressed with the speed of the new device. The website writes “there’s no lag to be found” when switching between apps, and “webpages rendered instantly”. Similarly to Engadget, first impressions with Siri are very good:

Siri is arguably the main draw. Apple’s new voice-control assistant, Siri makes promises that we’ve learnt to be wary about over the years, but after a brief test we’re surprisingly impressed. Easily activated, with a new microphone icon on the regular on-screen keyboard, Siri managed just what it did on-stage during the keynote. We could ask it local information, such as the weather or to find nearby stores, while online searching and complex questions for Wolfram Alpha were handled with little delay. Speed can be the killer for services like this – people just won’t wait if their phone takes 30 seconds to look up an answer – but Siri delivered in just seconds.

The iPhone 4S will be available on October 14th in 7 countries (US, Canada, Australia, the UK, France, Germany, and Japan) with pre-orders starting this Friday, October 7th. Apple has decided to keep the 8 GB iPhone 4 and 8 GB iPhone 3GS around at lower price points, and will release the iPhone 4S in 22 more countries on October 28th. Read more

New iPod Nano Features Available to 2010 Model via Software Update

Earlier today, Apple announced a new iPod nano model, which will ship with an updated version of its software pre-installed. This new iPod nano software will include new clock faces, new fitness features, and a refreshed user interface with bigger icon navigation. From Apple’s press release:

iPod nano now features larger icons for even easier navigation of its intuitive Multi-Touch™ user interface, and you can choose from 16 new digital clock faces, ranging from classic analog looks to your favorite Disney characters including Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse. iPod nano now tracks your runs and walks right out of the box with no accessory required, making it even easier to get your fitness program up and running. iPod nano can track the time, pace and distance of your run, the calories you burn, and the number of steps you walk. iPod nano encourages you with motivational real-time voice feedback during your run, available in seven languages, while listening to your favorite music or FM radio station. You can also easily upload workouts to the Nike+ website to set goals, track your progress and challenge friends. The ultra portable iPod nano is available in seven colors including silver, graphite, blue, green, orange, pink and (PRODUCT) RED.

Whereas many had initially claimed the new iPod nano software would be exclusive to the latest nano model, Apple has made available a software update in iTunes that enables the latest functionalities on the 2010 iPod nano. The update can be installed now by iPod nano 2010 owners by checking for updates in iTunes, as shown below. Interestingly enough, the new navigation UI is optional and users can revert back to the old grid interface in the iPod’s settings.