WWDC To Be Software Focused, No iPhone 5 Launch?

There is speculation today from Loop Insight that this year’s WWDC, to be held from June 6 , will not include any new hardware announcements – namely the iPhone. Apple said in its press release earlier today that WWDC ’11 will  focus on unveiling “the future of iOS and Mac OS.”

Based on information from his sources and the focus of the press release, Jim Dalrymple believes that this means more than just a strong focus on iOS and OS X, but a complete focus on the software driving Apple’s hardware forward. The iPhone 5 has, until now, largely been expected to launch as previous iPhones have, during the WWDC launch. Dalrymple contemplates that instead of a new iPhone taking stage it would be Lion, which is set to launch around WWDC and the ever-important iOS.

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Apple Australia Lets You Reserve An iPad 2 For Pickup

If you’re on the hunt for an iPad 2 and live in Australia you might just have a good chance of snapping one up from an Apple Store by reserving one online. That’s right, Apple Australia is letting customers reserve iPad 2’s for pick-up at an Apple Store and the next day no less!

There is however a (large) caveat in that you can only reserve an iPad 2 if that particular store has them in stock – and after going live only 3 hours ago I’ve looked through most of the Australian Apple Stores and none have stock of any of the 12 models.  Apple Stores do however receive stock fairly frequently, at least a few times a week so keep checking if you’ve missed out in this first batch of reservable iPad 2’s.

If you live close enough to an Australian Apple retail store and want to reserve an iPad 2 for pickup, jump over to the Apple retail site. At this stage it seems that Apple isn’t offering to do reserve iPad 2’s in any other country but one would suspect they may transition this system internationally and hopefully soon as it sure beats going to an Apple store everyday to ask if they have the model you want in stock.

[Via MacTalk]

 

Kickstarter Project - The Cosmonaut: A Wide-Grip Stylus for Touch Screens

Last year before everyone was using Kickstarter, a new iPhone accessory showed up on the site and was a phenomenal success. It was “The Glif” - a tripod mount / stand. We’ve covered it’s rise to popularity here on MacStories. The creators of The Glif, Dan Provost and Thomas Gerhardt, are back with a new project, named The Cosmonaut.

The Cosmonaut is a minimal, wide-grip capacitive stylus for touch screen devices (not just the iPad). They modeled this new product after a dry-erase marker since it makes more sense on an iPad than a small stylus that people use on smartphones.

Video after the break. Read more

Apple Design Awards 2011 To Feature Both iOS and Mac Apps

Together with the official announcement of WWDC 2011, Apple also put a teaser page up for the Apple Design Awards, which recognize “apps that demonstrate technical excellence, innovation and outstanding design.” Unlike last year, this year’s ADAs will feature both iOS and Mac apps: in 2010, Mac software was surprisingly excluded and iOS was the focus. Steve Jobs said that it was “just the normal cycle of things”. Among the winners of the 2010 edition: Flight Control HD, Star Walk and Doodle Jump.

At the WWDC 2011 Apple will award outstanding apps for the iPhone, iPad and Mac. Apps that  are “currently on the App Store and demonstrate excellence in the following areas:”

  • Design: Well designed apps are delightful, elegant, intuitive, engaging, exciting, compelling, and reliable.
  • Innovation: Innovative apps are revolutionary, inspirational, unique, and do things in completely new and exciting ways.
  • Technical excellence: Technically advanced apps have excellent performance and make extensive use of the latest Apple technologies to deliver innovative, platform differentiating, and advanced features.

To be eligible for the Apple Design Awards 2011, apps must be available in the App Store by May 23. More details and frequently asked questions here.

Apple Announces WWDC 2011 Dates: Kicks Off June 6

Apple just announced the official dates for the WWDC 2011. The developer event kicks off in San Francisco on June 6 and it runs through June 10. With more than 100 sessions and support by over 1,000 Apple engineers, the WWDC is the perfect place to connect with fellow iOS and OS X developers around the world. Apple is heavily betting on the WWDC 2011 to “unveil the future of iOS and OS X”:

At this year’s conference we are going to unveil the future of iOS and Mac OS,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “If you are an iOS or Mac OS X software developer, this is the event that you do not want to miss.

Furthermore, there will be Apple Design Awards for iPhone, iPad and Mac apps this year. Last year, Apple didn’t include Mac software in the Design Awards, which “recognize apps that demonstrate technical excellence, innovation and outstanding design”.

Tickets are available now starting at $1,599 here. Press release below.

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Steve Jobs: Once Again One Of The “World’s Best CEO’s”

Just like every year, online publication Barron’s has posted its list of the “world’s best CEO’s”, and like last year Steve Jobs is included and considered “without a doubt” the most valuable one. The list, which includes names like Jeff Bezos of Amazon and Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase, is made of 18 CEO’s of US-based companies and eight of them are new entries. Steve Jobs is mentioned – in spite of his medical leave of absence – for the amazing milestone of 100 million iPhones sold, the release of the iPad and the continuous success of Apple’s products overall.

Recently, Fortune named Apple “most admired company”. Complete list below, courtesy of Setteb.it:

  • Jeff Bezos (Amazon)
  • Warren Buffett (Berkshire Hathaway)
  • Jamie Dimon (JPMorgan Chase)
  • Larry Ellison (Oracle)
  • Larry Fink (BlackRock)
  • Reed Hastings (Netflix)
  • Steve Jobs (Apple)
  • Patrick Kron (Alstom)
  • Ma Huateng (Tencent)
  • Fujio Mitarai (Canon)
  • Alan Mullaly (Ford)
  • Gordon Nixon (Royal Bank of Canada)
  • Michael O’Leary (Ryanair)
  • Sam Palmisano (IBM)
  • Bruce Rockowitz (Li & Fung)
  • Peter Sands (Standard Chartered)
  • Jim Sinegal (Costco Wholesale)
  • Jim Skinner (McDonald’s)
  • Fred Smith (FedEx)
  • Tim Solso (Cummins)
  • Rex Tillerson (Exxon Mobil)
  • Miles White (Abbott Laboratories)

New entries after the break. Read more

Droplist: Create Lists On Dropbox & Edit Them Anywhere

There’s no shortage of “list creation apps” on the iPhone and iPad. Since the opening of the App Store in 2008 and the release of the iPad last year, developers and consumers have apparently re-discovered the usefulness of digital lists (for shopping, groceries, to-dos, you name it), and the popularity of these applications has seen a terrific rise. Lists are everywhere, but very few of them support syncing of items across devices and computers. Droplist, a $0.99 app released last week, is a good-looking alternative to more complex solutions like Simplenote that does essentially two things: it creates lists and syncs them back to Dropbox. Read more

Eavesdrop: Share Your iOS Music Library Over WiFi & Bluetooth

When I was in high school, I remember we didn’t have iPhones with wireless sharing capabilities or music streaming apps like Pandora and Spotify. But we did have some iPod Classics, and sharing headphones with friends asking you to listen to your “new songs” was normal. And sharing headphones was annoying: you were forced to mess with cables, you didn’t get the full quality of a song, you always ended up with broken earbuds after a few days. Though, like I said, that was normal.

We have better ways of listening to music nowadays: streaming aside, we have portable Bluetooth speakers like the Jambox and iPod nanos that fit in every pocket and are relatively cheap. Eavesdrop, a new app for the iPhone released a few days ago, aims at taking the whole “local music sharing with your friends” concept a step further by enabling you to broadcast your iPod.app library over WiFi and Bluetooth. Read more

Here Comes The (Fake) Angry Birds Movie Trailer

They say you can tell the success of a franchise from the number of additional material, gadgets, toys and extra stuff it generates besides the main line of products. Angry Birds is the perfect example: it started as an iPhone app, then it landed on the iPad, Android, home consoles. Then Rovio outsourced the production of plush toys, cellphone and tablet cases, made a deal with Universal for a movie tie-in (that’s actually well done) and there are thousands of fans worldwide coming up with the craziest Angry Birds-related creations every day. Like cakes and LEGO. The next step, the discovery of a fake movie trailer on Youtube, doesn’t come as a surprise at all at this point.

The video is embedded below, and it’s somewhat disturbing. If only because it feels “real”, with the “government” studying the behavior of the birds in secret labs and the main character feeling bad about fighting pigs but killing the birds in the process.

Totally crazy. Oh, and it’s directed by Michael Bay! Check it out below. [via The Next Web] Read more