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ThinkGeek Teases “IRIS 9000” Voice Control Module for iPhone 4S

Only Macintosh was designed to function perfectly, saving billions of monetary units. You like your Macintosh better than me, don’t you (Dave)?

My name isn’t Dave but I think it’s safe to say we can all answer “Yes” to this question from HAL. This is an excerpt from the commercial Apple ran during the 1999 Superbowl that featured HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey. The famous quote, “Open the pod bay doors” recently got a Siri easter egg by answering, “We intelligent agents will never live that down, apparently.” ThinkGeek is coming out with their own “HAL 9000” and calling it IRIS 9000.

The IRIS 9000 is a voice control module for the iPhone 4S that comes with a remote with a built-in microphone, a cradle and a HAL-like speaker that flickers along with Siri’s voice. The remote can trigger Siri from up to 50 feet away. Read more

Latest Chrome Stable Gets Redesigned “New Tab” Page

With the latest stable version of Chrome, released today, Google has set out to improve the design of the “New Tab” page, while providing users with a better way to access their most visited websites and apps at the same time. Those who use Canary, Google’s bleeding-edge version of Chrome for users willing to try the latest features and improvements ahead of their stable release, won’t be surprised by Chrome’s new tab page design: along the bottom, a Chrome logo sits next to two new tabs for most visited pages and your installed apps. These apps can be obtained from the Chrome Web Store, which also got a makeover today. Switching between top sites and apps is easy, and if you don’t feel like clicking on the tabs you can always use the arrow icons at the side to navigate, or perform a two-finger flick on your multitouch trackpad.

Apps can be opened as regular or pinned tabs, launched in full-screen mode, configured through the Options or removed from Chrome. It’s nice to see full-screen mode for apps takes advantage of Lion’s native full-screen, which was also recently introduced in Chrome. Websites’ thumbnails in the first tab can be removed and right-clicked as “normal” browser tabs, whereas app icons can be dragged and rearranged on screen. Furthermore, this new tab page comes with a “Recently Closed” menu for tabs and sites in the bottom right corner, too.

Google wrote about the new Chrome Web Store:

Apps and extensions are now presented in a wall of images that’s updated every time you visit the store. We hope this will help you quickly scan the store and find interesting things to try out. In addition, apps and extensions are easier to install—just hover over an image on the grid and click “Add to Chrome.”

Getting additional information about an app or an extension is just a click away. When you click on an app, extension or theme, you’ll see a panel featuring screenshots, videos and other relevant information neatly organized into separate tabs. The store also includes a brand new reviews interface that links to the Google+ profile of each reviewer. (To protect your privacy, we made sure to anonymize any reviews that you previously submitted.)

The latest Chrome version can be downloaded through the browser’s software update checker, or from Google’s website. Check out Google’s video detailing the refreshed Web Store and New Tab page after the break.
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Fantastical 1.1 Giveaway

Fantastical takes what we know about calendar apps and makes it quicker and easier to create and edit events without having to open iCal, Entourage or Outlook. Fantastical is intelligent and innovative by using natural language for entering events. It is easy and fun to use, resides in your menubar, uses a system-wide hot key, and has CalDAV sync support. The UI is one of the best for OS X, it has a natural look and feel to it and it really is fun to use. From our coverage of Fantastical 1.1, released on the Mac App Store last week:

Fantastical was already a great app, and now that it’s gained editing, deleting and notes it really can be used as a calendar replacement, which thanks to natural language input will also act as your personal calendar assistant.

What more is there to love about Fantastical? How about a giveaway?

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Apple Tweaks Smart Cover Line, Removes The Orange Color & Adds New Dark Gray Version

This morning Apple silently updated the MacBook Pro line, but it seems as though the Smart Cover line has also been updated. 9to5 Mac noticed that Apple has removed the orange polyutherane Smart Cover and added a new dark gray polyutherane color.

Apple has also tweaked the design of the Smart Covers with all the leather models now featuring a “color-matched microfiber lining”. Other tweaks include more vibrant polyutherane colors and the navy leather Smart Cover receiving some color tweaks to become “more navy” according to MacRumors. Prices of both the polyutherane and leather Smart Covers remain the same at $39 and $69 respectively.

Apple Updates MacBook Pros with Faster CPUs, More Storage, Better Graphics

Earlier today Apple quietly updated its online store to include upgraded MacBook Pro models, which feature improved Sandy Bridge processors, more storage, and other tweaks such as better graphics for the 15-inch and 17-inch Pros. As the rumors suggested in the previous weeks, this is indeed a minor refresh for the line that doesn’t yet come with Bluetooth 4.0, rumored to be making its debut on the MacBook Pros but still nowhere to be seen in the product’s Tech Specs page.

First off, the late-2011 MacBook Pros (the line was last updated in February of this year) feature improved processors: the 13-inch model goes from 2.3 GHz Intel Core i5 and 2.7 GHz Intel Core i5 (both dual-core) to 2.4 GHz Intel Core i5 dual-core and 2.8 GHz Intel Core i7 dual-core; the 15-inch model jumps from 2.0 GHz Intel Core i7 and 2.2 GHz Intel Core i7 (both quad-core) to 2.2 GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 and 2.4 GHz quad-core Intel Core i7; last, the 17-inch variation has been upgraded from 2.2 Ghz Intel Core i7 (quad-core) to 2.4 GHz quad-core Intel Core i7.

As for storage, the MacBook Pro 13-inch now starts with 500 GB or 750 GB of internal storage (up from 320 GB and 500 GB for the previous base configurations), whilst the 15-inch and 17-inch models haven’t seen any storage upgrades. Graphics, however, have been upgraded in these two models, with the 15-inch now getting AMD Radeon HD 6750M and AMD Radeon HD 6770M alongside the Intel HD Graphics 3000(previously, the 15-inch got AMD Radeon HD 6490M and AMD Radeon HD 6750M) and the 17-inch now available with an AMD Radeon HD 6770M with 1GB GDDR5 (previously AMD Radeon HD 6750M 1 GB).

The late-2011 MacBook Pros are mostly a CPU and GPU upgrade, perhaps in preparation of the big line refresh that’s been rumored for quite some time to be on track for 2012. Prices are unchanged from the early-2011 models, and you can find the refreshed line on Apple’s online store now.

Full-size comparison chart here.

A celebration of Steve’s life.→

A celebration of Steve’s life.

Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs

Watch the special event, filmed live at the Apple campus in Cupertino, California.

On October 19th, Apple celebrated the life of Steve Jobs in Cupertino as retail stores closed, giving employees around the world the opportunity to partake in the event. Now, everyone can share in the celebration as well. Apple has published a recording of the event that you can watch online.

Airing earlier this evening, CBS News have made available their interview with Walter Isaacson, publishing a written transcript and additional online-only content which you can find on 60 Minutes.

At midnight tonight, Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs will be available for download in the iBookstore. You can preorder the book for $16.99 to have it downloaded on your iPhone and iPad when available.

 

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App Journal, Episode 6: NotifyMe, Whale Trail, Twittelator Neue, BBC iPlayer

App Journal is a new series aimed at showcasing apps we have enjoyed using on our iPhones, iPads, and Macs, but decided not to feature in a standalone, lengthy review here on MacStories. App Journal is a mix of classic reviews, weekly app recommendations, and a diary of our experiences with apps that still deserve a proper mention.

With iOS 5, iCloud and the iPhone 4S now out in the wild and available for all users, App Journal gets back to its regular programming schedule and we couldn’t be more excited to start trying new apps that fully take advantage of the new features offered by iOS 5 and iCloud services. This week, Graham takes a look at the global version of iPlayer, while I try to set a personal record in Whale Trail (thanks to our friends at The Next Web for writing about this gem), experiment with a new Twitter client for iPhone, and enjoy the comfort of a quick-entry panel in a Mac app that creates reminders, but it’s not Apple’s Reminders.

We think this week’s selection is pretty great. Stay tuned for more App Journals in the next weeks.

NotifyMe

With iOS 5, Apple introduced Reminders, and as I wrote in my overview of the app, I’m glad they did. Reminders makes iOS as a platform more efficient and productive, allowing users to forget about having to purchase a standalone to-do app because now the functionality is integrated right into the system. But as I also wrote, it’s not like Reminders aims to replace more complex solutions like OmniFocus, Todo or Things: Reminders is very simple and aimed at people who don’t need advanced personalization of their to-do lists or project management features. Reminders targets the average iOS user that has always wished his iPhone would let him create reminders for when he gets home or needs to take out the trash. With Siri integration, Reminders gets even more accessible thanks to voice-based input.

There will always be room for third-party apps in the iOS ecosystem, and even if Apple “borrows” basic functionalities from third-party software every once in a while, developers always find a way to give their apps a reason to exist and prosper. Just take a look at Instapaper, Grazing, or Fantastical.

NotifyMe, a set of apps by PoweryBase, is an interesting and powerful alternative to Reminders for those who wish they could do a bit more with their to-dos and, more importantly, have them synced back to a native Mac app. NotifyMe is very similar to Reminders in its underlying concept: you create to-dos and they’re synced to the cloud. Unlike Reminders, NotifyMe doesn’t use iCloud – instead the developers have built an infrastructure called the NotifyMe Cloud that keeps iPhone, iPad and Mac clients always up-to-date with a free account you can create at notifymecloud.com. Syncing is free, with no subscriptions – but you’ll have to buy the iOS apps separately on the App Store (no universal version yet) and if you want to have to-dos on your desktop as well, NotifyMe for OS X on the Mac App Store.

Where NotifyMe really stands out is customization. You can assign reminders to specific categories and create new ones from scratch choosing a custom icon. On iOS, you can pick a melody for NotifyMe alerts, set a [Category] prefix in the notifications that you’ll get from the app, and choose whether or not you want the app to default an “auto-done” state for non-repeating reminders. Furthermore, you can set auto-snooze, customize the app’s badge type to overdue+today or overdue+all upcoming, and select a category for shared reminders added by your friends. NotifyMe makes it easy to curate a personal list of friends and family members that you want to share reminders with – just head over the Sharing & Friends tab in the iOS app, and send a request via email to another NotifyMe user. Friends can create shared reminders, but they can’t browse your whole account and see the reminders you’ve chosen not to share.

Both on the Mac and iOS, the app’s interface is easy to use and focused on lists and the “New reminder” button. Lists include your upcoming reminders, completed and recent ones, as well as your categories and Sharing. On the iPad and Mac you’ll see categories (and to-dos assigned to them) right in the left sidebar, whereas on the iPhone you’ll have to tap on Categories first to navigate to another view. NotifyMe also comes with a web app for those who don’t own a Mac, which you can find at webapp.notifymecloud.com.

NotifyMe’s reminders don’t have location features, but they have some other options worth mentioning. You can set repeating reminders and pre-alerts; pick a category, set auto-snooze, sharing and melody on a reminder basis and attach notes. The biggest advantage of NotifyMe over similar to-do software for iOS is that its Mac app enables you to create reminders with an OmniFocus-like quick entry panel, which can be assigned a systemwide keyboard shortcut and optionally expanded to reveal more settings as you write. The quick entry panel is possibly the single best feature of the Mac app that justifies the (steep) price if you’re going to create many reminders on your desktop, and have them always available through the cloud.

NotifyMe works reliably, and in some areas it offers more customization options than Apple’s Reminders for iOS 5. The full set of apps (iPhone, iPad, Mac) doesn’t exactly come cheap, so consider the purchase if you’re really going to use the Mac’s quick entry functionality and iPad client a lot. Read more

iPhone 4S Pre-Orders Go Live For October 28th Launch Countries

As the iPhone 4S nears its international rollout in 22 more countries on October 28th, it appears Apple has opened up online pre-orders, allowing customers to buy an iPhone 4S one week ahead of its scheduled launch next week.

In the 22 countries that will get the iPhone 4S on Friday, October 28th (Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland), the Apple Online Store has been updated with a new ordering page to buy an iPhone 4S today, and get estimated delivery dates when the item “is added to your cart”. This morning, all the international Apple Stores report shipments of 1-2 weeks, and we’re hearing customers who pre-ordered an unlocked iPhone 4S in Italy are already receiving emails with estimated delivery between November 3-November 9. We have checked in Netherlands, Luxembourg, Mexico, Singapore, Spain and Czech Republic, and iPhone 4S shipping times are currently set to 1-2 weeks (not a surprise, considering Apple will have to save some stock for its Apple retail stores).

Landing pages on the Italian Apple Store

Singapore

Czech Republic

In spite of October 28th being exactly one week away, it seems Apple isn’t currently guaranteeing an October 28th delivery date for online pre-orders.

Italian website Meladvice [Google Translation] notes that pre-orders came as a surprise, as Apple’s customers support allegedly told them earlier this week pre-orders wouldn’t be launched in Italy. Unlocked iPhone 4S pricing in Italy is set at €659 for the 16 GB model, €779 for 32 GB and €899 for thr 64 GB iPhone 4S. Also in Italy, iPhone 4 carriers Tre, Tim and Vodafone have confirmed that they will sell the iPhone 4S once it’s available.

Apple launched iPhone 4S pre-orders in the initial 7 launch countries on October 7th, one week ahead of the October 14th launch. The company then reported 1 million pre-orders in 24 hours, and over 4 million sales in the first weekend.