Posts in news

Steve Jobs: “We Have No Plans To Kill The iPod Classic”

In the past months, several reports suggested Apple was in the process of discontinuing the iPod Classic line, which hasn’t been updated in years, to make room for the latest generation iPod Touches, Nanos and Shuffles. With stock running low in several Apple resellers and a lack of announcements at Apple’s September music event, many thought the iPod Classic was on its way out. The numbers, however, proved that in spite of old hardware, the Classic was the 5th most popular music player in the US in 2010. Rumors of new portable hard drives by Toshiba even suggested Apple might not discontinue the line, but bump its capacity to a whopping 220 GB in the same design. That hasn’t happened yet.

Now it’s Steve Jobs himself, in an email reply to a MacRumors reader, to confirm that Apple isn’t planning to kill the iPod Classic just yet.

Q: Hello, I’ve heard a LOT of speculation that Apple is looking to kill the iPod Classic because it wasn’t updated on Sept. 1st, and that a lot of people would rather Touch. The iPod Classic is probably the best iPod in the line. PLEASE DON’T KILL IT!!!

A: We have no plans to.

Sent from my iPhone

So there you have it. In his usual short-reply fashion, Jobs allegedly reassures a loyal Apple fan that the iPod Classic isn’t going anywhere. Discontinuing the line would indeed be a strange move on Apple’s part, considering how the iPod Classic is the only device that can enable owners of large music collections to carry around their libraries without worrying about space.

Expected iMac Update To Sandy Bridge & Thunderbolt To Occur In 4-6 Weeks?

iMacUpdate

iMacUpdate

With the MacBook Pro line getting spec bumps to Sandy Bridge processors and Thunderbolt, Apple’s iMac should fall in line in about 4-6 weeks according to Brian Tong from CNET. On Twitter, Brian noted that iMac’s were en route for a late April refresh.

EXCLUSIVE: My Sources: New iMacs en route by ocean to U.S. available end of April or 1st week of May. No major cosmetic changes.

My sources say New iMacs will feature Sandy Bridge and Thunderbolt. No other specifics.

The iMac shouldn’t receive any aesthetic changes in this early 2011 update. CNET has also postulated that the MacBook Air would receive an update to Sandy Bridge in June, replacing the much outdated Core 2 Duo processor in the mobile lineup.

[Brian Tong via MacNews.de via MacRumors]

Shazam Adds “Friends” Feature with Facebook Integration

Shazam, the popular music discovery tool for iOS, was updated earlier today to include a new feature that, similarly to Apple’s Ping or the recently reviewed SoundTracking, lets you connect with other people to see what music they’re listening to. The new functionality is called “Friends” and it’s displayed as a new tab in Shazam’s bottom toolbar. To get started with Friends, you’ll have to login through your Facebook account and link the device to your Shazam profile – all the social interaction of Friends happens through Facebook and your friends that are already using the mobile app to tag songs.

Once you have some friends using Shazam (right now, I don’t), the songs they tag will show up in the Friends tab alongside the album artwork, a preview you can listen to and a link to buy the song on iTunes. Tapping on an item brings you to the usual Shazam view where you can share, check lyrics and Youtube videos, get tour info for a specific artist or jump to Last.fm. The Friends functionality is very streamlined and doesn’t provide all the options offered by an app like SoundTracking, but it’s a start and a welcome addition to Shazam.

Shazam Encore is available for $5.99 in the App Store. The free version got updated as well. Read more

10.6.7 Crashing iTunes For Some MacBook Air Owners

According to a thread on Apple Discussions that received more than 30 replies since yesterday’s release of Mac OS X 10.6.7, the latest software update makes it impossible for some MacBook Air (late 2010) owners to open iTunes. The issue seems to especially affect the new MacBook Airs 13”, and it basically forces iTunes to quit seconds after launch while running 10.6.7.

Before upgrading to a new version of OS X, it’s always a good practice to backup your important files and possibly use Time Machine to save multiple instances of your OS to an external hard drive. When issues pop up, however, there are some tips you can follow to make sure the upgrade process goes as smoothly as Apple (and the user) wants. First off, if Software Update is failing you and you notice issues with some applications, consider running a Combo Update. It’s a bigger download, but in most situations the Combo Update is everything you need to make OS X update to a newer version correctly. You can download the Mac OS X 10.6.7 Combo Update here.

If iTunes 10.2.1 is still crashing after a combo update to 10.6.7 and a manual restart, you can erase your iTunes preferences and Genius database to start fresh with the app on the newly updated OS. Preferences can be found in Users/yourusername/Library/Preferences and they look something like this: “com.apple.itunes”. Delete those files when iTunes is closed and reboot again. The Genius database can be found in Music/iTunes and it’s the file called “itunes library genius.itdb”. The database will be rebuilt on next launch, after you accept the iTunes EULA again.

Of course, you should always backup everything on your Mac – especially the iTunes library that stores your music, apps, movies, books and more. Storing iTunes on Dropbox (which in its Pro plans includes a featured called “Packrat” that you gives unlimited access to all your previously deleted files) is a good plan to get started. If you have a MacBook Air and you found another way to fix iTunes on OS X 10.6.7, please let us know in the comments below.

Rumor: Valve “Looking Into” iOS for Steam Expansion

If you’re familiar with the PC and Mac gaming scene, then you have most definitely heard of Steam: a game distribution platform by Valve that collects thousands of games in a single marketplace that’s easy to use and aggregates users worldwide enabling them to communicate through the platform. Steam, first released on Windows PCs, came out on OS X last year after much anticipation, quickly becoming many users’ favorite way of discovering and downloading games for the Mac.

Member of Steam’s forums Political Gamer recently visited the Valve headquarters and reported an interesting tidbit from his visit and talk with Valve co-founder Gabe Newell: Valve is apparently “looking into” iOS and Android as possible platforms for Steam’s expansion in the future:

After waiting in the lobby for a few minutes it turned out Gabe was in the office and wanted to say hi. To my great delight he was playing DOTA 2 when we walked in and from what I can see the game already looks very promising. After a little “sneak peek” we sat down to talk about Steam and other goings on in Valve. During this chat he confirmed that Steam will get a video recorder very soon, also he said they were looking into the iOS/Android platform for possible expansions with Steam. He also siad that the Source film maker is in the pipeline for a public release. After the chat was over he happily signed my copy of the Orange box and sent me on my way to Robin Walker.

The report doesn’t provide any additional details on Valve’s plans for a mobile Steam, and we only speculate that the development studio might be considering an iPhone or iPad client to check on your online Steam account and friends. Certainly Apple would never approve an iOS Steam app that lets you download and play games out of the App Store, whilst on Android Valve could easily deploy and alternative store like Amazon did (and got sued for the name choice). On iOS, Steam as we know it would be a difficult goal to accomplish: Apple doesn’t allow the installation of apps from alternative sources (the so-called “side-loading”) and the possible implementation of in-app purchases wouldn’t fit Steam’s growing catalogue of games.

Apple has turned its iOS and Mac App Stores into the perfect place for users to discover and buy games, and we don’t expect Steve Jobs to change his mind anytime soon about allowing other developers to “break the ecosystem” with unofficial app stores. So perhaps Steam for iOS will be a simple app to manage your online account? Or a “brand” for App Store developers to publish their games? We don’t know yet, but it’s interesting that Valve is at least looking at the possibilities offered by iOS. [via]

The Kitchen iLand

Tim Thaler has maximized the floor space in his kitchen, and also found a solution for an island - he hid the island in the floor. Tim’s island raisies up and down with an iPhone app and a tap.

Video after the break. Read more

Firefox 4 Is Officially Live

Firefox 4 (Glow)

Firefox 4 (Glow)

While sites leaked out the Firefox 4 download yesterday, rumors cropped up that the download was the 2nd release candidate with the 4.0 name. I wasn’t interested in verifying the download or posting it until it officially went, and as of this morning you can download and visualize Mozilla’s success in realtime from glow.mozilla.org. It’s very cool, and also provides ample opportunity to download Firefox 4.0 for yourself.

The new Firefox 4 interface not only looks a lot better (the address bar improvements are very cool), but now you have something Panorama available where you can group tabs by dragging and drop websites into collections for work, play, research, or however you want to organize them. According to Mozilla, Firefox 4 3x faster than Firefox 3.6 in the Sunspider test, and scores 6x higher on the V8 test. You can check out all the features here and download Firefox 4 from the same page.

Apple Confirms: iPad 2 in 25 More Countries This Friday, Launching at 5 PM

Apple just posted a press release confirming that the iPad 2 will launch in 25 more countries this Friday, thus denying the rumors of a delay we heard in these past days. The iPad 2 will be available at Apple retail stores and authorized resellers at 5 PM, with online orders starting at 1 AM. The device will be released in Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore and “other countries” in April.

Apple® today announced that iPad® 2, the second-generation of its third post-PC device, will go on sale in 25 additional countries this Friday, March 25. iPad 2 will be available at Apple retail stores and select Apple Authorized Resellers at 5 p.m. local time, and online through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com) beginning at 1 a.m. Apple today also announced that all models of iPad 2 will be available in Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore and additional countries in April.

This is the Italian pricing (and hopefully the same of other countries with Euro currency): €479,00 for the WiFi 16 GB model, €579,00 for the WiFi 32 GB model and €679,00 for WiFi 64 GB. The WiFi + 3G models will be available for €599,00, €699,00 and €799,00.

UK pricing: £399.00 for the 16GB model, £479.00 for the 32GB model, £559.00 for the 64GB model. Wi-Fi + 3G  models will be available for £499.00, £579.00 and £659.00.

Australian pricing: iPad 2 WiFi: 16GB - $579;  32GB - $689;    64GB - $799;  iPad 2 WiFi + 3G: 16GB - $729;   32GB - $839;    64GB - $949.

Overall, it seems like the iPad 2 is cheaper than the iPad 1 across Europe and Australia, a clever move considering Apple priced the iPad 2 just as the iPad 1 in the United States. Press release below.

Read more

Wife Said No But Apple Says Yes And Gives Guy Free iPad 2

In what is quite an amusing tale, one of the iPad 2’s returned last week was owned by a guy who was unfortunately told to return it by his wife. Because Apple had been troubleshooting returned iPad 2’s his iPad was discovered with a post-it note reading “Wife said no.” According to MacRumors, this was escalated up the Apple hierarchy as somewhat of joke, eventually reaching two VPs.

Those VPs decided it was only fair to send the guy an iPad 2 and add a note that said “Apple said yes.”

Genius.

[Via MacRumors]