Intel CEO: “Apple Did A Wonderful Job With The iPad, But We’ll Win”

Rumor has it the iPad is the fastest selling gadget in history. As Kanye would say: the best selling gizmo of all time. What’s curious is that PC manufacturers used to ditch the tablet category and make fun of Apple and its iPad back in January, but after a few months of blockbuster sales they had to revise their position and rush to get some tablets out in the market. As it stands right now, the Samsung Galaxy Tab is coming out in a few weeks (though hundreds of review units are somehow circulating amongst tech blogs) and lots of other models have been announced but they’re still nowhere to be seen. Read more

Assorted Mac OS X 10.7 Hopes & Predictions

So Apple is holding a media event on October 20th and, judging by the invitation Engadget and BGR got, it’s going to be an event focused on MacBooks (October / November is the usual timeframe for new MacBook models to drop) and a new version of OS X, namely “10.7. Lion”. I mean, there’s a lion in there. It has to be a lion.

Tagline debates aside, I’ve been thinking about this a lot: Snow Leopard is state of the art desktop computing, how could Apple reinvent the wheel and introduce us to an even better, revolutionary (and yeah, maybe there’ll be a magical in there too) kind of desktop and portable computing?  Apple constantly iterates, yet sometimes they put a giant milestone in their timeline and they build the next 5 years around it. Look at Leopard: it set the foundation for the huge success of 10.5, and the evolution of 10.6. I think 10.7 will be another milestone, a new OS Apple will use as a foundation for years to come. 10.7 will set the bar really high once again, and it’ll mark the long-overdue definitive integration of the iOS ecosystem with OS X.

I’ve collected some hopes, predictions and expectations for October 20th event that have been floating around in my mind for quite a while now. See you on Wednesday, on the other side of modern computing. Read more

Apple Holding Media Event on October 20th - 10.7 Lion Coming?

Apple is holding a Mac-focused media event on October 20th, Engadget just got the invitation.

The event is dubbed “Back to Mac” and…is that a lion we see in there? Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, perhaps? Or maybe this is just a teaser, and we’ll simply see new MacBook models, which usually drop in the October / November timeframe? Next Wednesday can’t come soon enough. For all your predictions and expectations, we’re awaiting in the comments below.

We’ll be discussing the event live on MacStories. Stay tuned.

Take Five: New App From The Iconfactory For When You Forget To Un-Pause Your Music

I love waking up to new apps from people I respect and admire. The Iconfactory guys are among these people: how couldn’t the makers of Twitterrific not be in the list? They’re great developers and experienced designers that don’t fail to surprise on each new app release.

Take Five is a new app for iPhone from The Iconafctory aimed at letting you remember about the music you paused and never turned back on. Admittedly, this is quite a common problem: not all iPhone apps support automatic resume after a phone call interruption (Spotify, for example) and so many times we simply forget to press the play button again. Take Five automatically fades your music back in after 5 minutes. Why didn’t we think of this before? Read more

New Gorgeous Grooveshark App Hits Cydia

The guys over at Grooveshark are going back to their roots: they have just released a brand new 2.0 version of their iPhone client in Cydia, where it all started. Grooveshark, in fact, released the first version of the music client in Cydia in 2009, when Apple didn’t want stuff like background streaming on its iPhones and iPod Touches. Last August, though, Apple revised its rules and approved the Grooveshark app - just to pull it a week later due to a complaint filed by the Universal Music Group UK.

As it turns out, the promising music streaming startup has grown tired of Apple’s rules and limitations, so they’re going back to Cydia. The app has been released for free under BigBoss’ repository. Read more

Zune could Befriend iPod in Possible Mac Matrimony (Update: Windows Phone Sync Confirmed)

Microsoft was never able to hang with the cool kids even after they released a rather sublime MP3 player you might now as the Zune. In its three iterations from a brown rubber brick to sexy brushed metal beast, wanting Mac owners could never tap into Microsoft’s Zune Marketplace (which offers a pretty good subscription service) through their Xbox inspired Zune software, or enjoy the startling good looks of the Zune’s eerily minimal (and sometimes purposefully illegible) interface.

Now with the release of Windows Phone 7, Microsoft may finally be willing to reach out to Macintosh owners interested in experiencing Redmond’s take on social media, communication, and of course music and video. Engadget reports this evening that the Zune software (and of course all the Zuney hardware that goes with it) may be ported to OS X thanks to a tip from a UK Microsoft Marketing guru (and Microsoft does have gurus you know) by the name of Oded Ran. In an exclusive #WP7 announcement on Twitter, the promise of being able to use “Zune” on our Macs to sync with all of the upcoming phones was made, though the announcement was deleted shortly after.

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