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Apple Keyboards Receive (Very) Minor Detail Changes

With the release of OS X Lion and new MacBook Airs, Apple has made slight tweaks to the custom f-keys on their keyboard. The main change is that the Dashboard key (located on the F4) has now been replaced with a Launchpad key. The other change is that the Exposé button (located on the F3) key that is now used for Mission Control in Lion has seen a minor change to the icon.

Noticed by iSpazio the change has also propagated to Apple’s wired keyboards and one would presume it will soon make its way to the Apple wireless keyboard. Bundled keyboards with purchased iMac’s and Mac Pros should also soon ship with these slightly tweaked keyboards. Unfortunately these minor signage tweaks are about the extent of the changes to the Apple keyboards – no backlit keys or significant design changes.

[iSpazio via 9to5 Mac]

PopCap Teams Up With A Boy Suffering From Leukaemia, Grants His Wish Of Creating A Game

Owain Weinert, a 9-year-old boy that has been battling with Acute Lymphocytic Leukaemia recently reached out to the Make-A-Wish Foundation to see if he could have his dream of making an iOS game realised. Make-A-Wish inquired and managed to get in contact with the Seattle developer 4th & Battery, which you could classify as a ‘spin-off’ of PopCap (makers of Peggle and Plants vs. Zombies) that focuses on creating more experimental, indie or a “little flawed” games.

They granted Owain’s wish and helped him create Allied Star Police. Owain said he wanted to make something that was fun so that he would want to play the game. The result is a game that features a “combination of tower defense and real-time strategy gameplay” in which there is a “good vs. evil” story set in a “futuristic fictional world”.

Speaking of Owain, Mathew Lee Johnston, a senior producer at 4th and Battery, says that he “was like every other designer and developer I’ve worked with”. “The minute he walked in the door he handed us a fully realized game design, figured out to the last detail”. What does Owain think, now that the game is available?

My brother can’t stop playing it, my dad can’t stop playing it, and neither can I. This started off as a dream of mine and now my friends and people all over the world can play my creation.

Allied Star Police is available in the App Store for the iPhone and iPad for free. I’ve given it a quick play with two rounds and its certainly a fun game that offers a twist on the classic tower defense mechanic – it is most definitely worth the download. If you want to read more about the story of Owain and PopCap jump over to the Owain’s Wish page.

[Via Cult of Mac]

Adobe Clarifies: Flash Hardware Video Acceleration Not Disabled in Lion→

Adobe Clarifies: Flash Hardware Video Acceleration Not Disabled in Lion

Following the release of OS X Lion yesterday, a number of users immediately noticed that some of Adobe’s desktop tools, including Flash Player, had a series of compatibility issues with Apple’s new OS. Adobe started acknowledging these issues with a Known Issues official page, and TUAW noted most of Adobe’s product line was affected by the upgrade. Among the mentioned issues, Adobe stated “higher CPU activity when playing a YouTube video” with Flash Player  was “possibly related to disabled hardware acceleration” on Lion. Several blogs and tech publications implied Apple had done some changes to Lion’s final build to “kill” Flash Player for OS X.

With an update and a blog post, Adobe has now clarified that video hardware acceleration is not disabled in Lion.

The final release of Mac OS X Lion (10.7) provides the same support for Flash hardware video acceleration as Mac OS X Snow Leopard (10.6). The previous “Known Issue” described in a tech note suggesting that video hardware acceleration was disabled in Lion was incorrect and based on tests with a pre-release version of Mac OS X Lion that related to only one particular Mac GPU configuration. We continue to work closely with Apple to provide Flash Player users with a high quality experience on Mac computers.

From the Known Issues page:

Flash Player may cause higher CPU activity when playing a YouTube video. Possibly related to disabled hardware acceleration.

But then there’s an update below the first note:

UPDATE: The final release of Mac OS X Lion (10.7) provides the same support for Flash hardware video acceleration as Mac OS X Snow Leopard (10.6). The previous “Known Issue” suggesting that video hardware acceleration was disabled in Lion was incorrect and based on tests with a pre-release version of Mac OS X Lion that related to only one particular Mac GPU configuration. We continue to work closely with Apple to provide Flash Player users with a high quality experience on Mac computers.

Flash Player can be downloaded here, but the webpage still doesn’t include OS X 10.7 as supported OS.

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Apple to Bid on Hulu Online Television Service?

After being put up for sale by owners Walt Disney, News Corp, and NBC Universal, Apple may be considering to bid on the online television service according to ‘people familiar with the matter’. It’s your typical response to rumors small and large, but let’s look at what’s on the table. Apple has stockpiled storage in the past (presumably for storing and serving video), and today’s speculation also coincides with previous rumors that Apple is working on their own online streaming video service.

Hulu has already been in talks with AT&T, Yahoo, and Apple competitor Google. Apple has $76 billion in cash, a data center to spare, and a competitor I’m sure they’d love to prevent from acquiring Hulu’s properties. Hulu has 33,000 episodes available for Hulu Plus subscribers, mobile applications, and ties with gaming consoles and other devices in the consumer market.

Update: In an updated version of the story, Yahoo is purported to be willing to pay up to $2 billion for four/five years of content. Microsoft dropped out of the bidding for the deal.

[Bloomberg[1][2] via @emilychangtv]

Lodsys Sues Rovio Over Angry Birds for iOS and Android, More Developers

As noted by FOSS Patents, Lodsys, the company that started suing app developers over alleged patent infringement for in-app purchases and upgrade buttons back in May, has amended its complaint including more companies allegedly infringing on their patents, like Rovio.  Lodsys has left out Vietnamese company Wulven Games from the suit, but has now included other bigger names like the makers of Angry Birds, EA, Atari, Square Enix, and Take-Two Interactive. In total, Lodsys is now suing 37 defendants – smaller independent companies like The Iconfactory were first sent notices by Lodsys in May.

Lodsys is still not impressed by Apple’s assertion that its own license to Lodsys’s patents extends to its app developers. I also pointed out that Apple’s “exhaustion” theory is not necessarily accurate. Also, Lodsys may be able to capitalize on contractual commitments that might preclude Apple and Google from challenging Lodsys’s patents and the related infringement allegations.

With today’s amended complaint, Lodsys is currently suing a total of 37 defendants, and there may be more to come.

In the first weeks of June, Apple filed a motion to intervene in the proceedings between Lodsys and app developers hit by the patent infringement claims – which Apple claimed have no basis as Apple is “indisputably licensed” to the patents, and the app makers are protected by the development agreement with Apple. Florian Mueller at FOSS Patents doesn’t seem to share a similar view, and we recommend you check out all the updates and timeline of events over at his blog.

Lion: 1 Million Downloads In First Day

With a press release, Apple just announced over million copies of OS X Lion were downloaded on the first day of availability through the Mac App Store. That’s roughly $30 million for Apple in just 24 hours, with the OS receiving around 90% of positive reviews in the Store. Currently, Lion has over 9000 ratings with 8120 being five-star ones. Lion marks the first time Apple is distributing a new OS digitally through an online platform, though the company confirmed yesterday a USB Thumb Drive will be made available at $69 for people without a broadband connection to download the OS. As Lion is distributed through the Mac App Store, which is likely part of the iTunes services running on Apple’s North Carolina data centers, Apple’s new infrastructure should have moved 3.6 petabytes in the latest 24 hours.

Lion is off to a great start, user reviews and industry reaction have been fantastic,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “Lion is a huge step forward, it’s not only packed with innovative features but it’s incredibly easy for users to update their Macs to the best OS we’ve ever made.

You can read more about Lion’s new features in our coverage. Full press release embedded below. Read more

MacBook Air 13” Mid 2011 Teardown→

MacBook Air 13” Mid 2011 Teardown

Although today is an exciting day for consumers, it is a sad day for consumer repair. Apple decided that the “svelte and sexy” MacBook Air would replace the “simple and serviceable” white plastic MacBook (for consumers at least– the white plastic MacBook is still available for educational use). While this means that your book-bags will be significantly lighter, it will also mean that you won’t be upgrading or servicing your computer anytime soon.

As iFixit tears down the MacBook Air this afternoon, they’re equally sad to see the plastic MacBook leave Apple’s consumer lineup (it will still serve a purpose in the education sector for students around the world). I still have my old black MacBook, and I don’t plan on getting rid of it anytime soon. Thunderbolt machines are still young, Lion is new, and there’s still some shifts to be made in Apple’s product line before I’m willing to commit to a new machine. (I’m waiting for the optical drives to be removed from the MacBook Pros, which would likely happen with a redesign). That said, I’ve been keeping my MacBook alive thanks to the great folks at OWC. Already, they’re looking to support the new 2011 MacBook Airs. OWC Grant writes:

If I’m right about this, and the clues certainly make it appear so, then once again, OWC offers an upgrade path that offers up to four times more capacity (480GB) than the size of the typical choice stock drive (128GB) from the factory in the new machines.

If I’m wrong…and the flash storage is truly soldered in, there are two possible options. One, get your hands on a Refurbished 2010 model instead and drop an OWC Aura Pro Express in there for the capacity you truly need and want. Two, we always could (note that “could” term there!) offer a Turnkey Program where you would send your 2011 MBA to us and we’d send it back with higher capacity and likely faster flash storage.

According to iFixit’s update this afternoon, there should be no need for the Turnkey Program. Apple’s latest MacBook Air should accept the OWC Aura Pro Express so you may add more storage if needed to the lightweight machines.

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OS X Lion: Screen Sharing Overview

Since yesterday’s launch, we’ve detailed the biggest new features of OS X Lion in our review, covered the installation steps and took a quick tour across Aqua’s new interface elements; we’ve also listed the first five things we usually do when setting up Lion, and collected some of the best tips we received in the comments and via Twitter. After AirDrop, another app that I’ve been using daily on my Macs running Lion for the past few weeks is Screen Sharing, which gained some important improvements on the new OS and the possibility of logging into a user’s account even while it’s not being used, without disturbing who’s currently using a remote computer. Read more

OS X Lion: AirDrop Overview

Among the new features of Lion that Apple touts on the Mac App Store and the OS’ official webpage, there is a new peer-to-peer file sharing functionality called AirDrop, which uses the Finder as a way to share files with Macs nearby through drag & drop. Acting as a replacement to the omnipresent USB stick and providing an easier approach to wireless file sharing than the Mac’s default “Drop box” feature, AirDrop wants to replace any physical media and alternative software solutions used to share documents with your friends, family, or colleagues that happen to have a Mac next to your machine. I can’t tell you how many times in the past I found myself using my MacBook next to a friend’s MacBook, and doing something as simple as sharing an .mp3 file required us to either go through the Mac’s Sharing settings in System Preferences, upload it online for a one-time usage, or rely on the typical USB thumb drive.

AirDrop is aimed at making file sharing easy, and secure at the same time. Before I delve deeper into its feature set though, here’s the list of computers Apple says are compatible with Lion’s AirDrop:

  • MacBook Pro (Late 2008 or newer)
  • MacBook Air (Late 2010 or newer)
  • MacBook (Late 2008 or newer)
  • iMac (Early 2009 or newer)
  • Mac mini (Mid 2010 or newer)
  • Mac Pro (Early 2009 with AirPort Extreme card, or Mid 2010)

Read more