According to El Economista, British architect Norman Foster will be the head of operations to design Apple’s new campus in Cupertino. Sources familiar to the matter told El Economista that the new campus – which happens to be HP’s old campus, recently bought by Apple – is one of the company’s most important projects, and will be “revolutionary” in a way that will be built on top of modern “green technologies” and renewable energy resources. Read more
Norman Foster To Design Apple’s New Campus In Cupertino?
“Steve Wozniak Is A Silicon Valley Treasure”→
“Steve Wozniak Is A Silicon Valley Treasure”
As he took us through the museum, it became apparent how brilliant an engineer he is. He stopped at the Apple-1, the company’s first computer and the machine that first put computers into the grasp of “the rest of us.” His vision for the Apple-1 when it shipped in 1976 was simple – and profound.
“I didn’t design this computer to make a lot of money and start a company,” he said. “I wanted to accelerate the world advancement in the social revolution.” The Apple-1 would be a new way to communicate. A new way for the individual to exercise power.
He walked over to the Apple II on display nearby.
“This is my real gem,” he said, “the greatest design of my life.” And no one – not a docent, no guard, nobody – said a word when he pulled off the top panel to show the machine’s motherboard. “About half as many chips,” he said.
Great story.
AirPlay Streaming of Camera Roll Videos with Air Home Video
When iOS 4.2.1 came out on November 22nd, several users were disappointed to find out that there was no AirPlay option in the iPhone’s Camera Roll or Photos app. If you have some videos shot with your iPhone and you want to stream them to the new Apple TV, you’ll have to import them into iTunes on your computer first, then sync them back to the iPhone.
There’s no direct Camera Roll -> Apple TV streaming option, and as Daring Fireball’s John Gruber wrote weeks ago, this might be because of the different bitrate of high-def videos recorded on the iPhone. Read more
Doodle Jump Updated: Game Center Achievements Are A Go
Early in November we reported popular iPhone game Doodle Jump was updated to include Game Center support. Doodle Jump fans around the globe were waiting for a way to compare their scores with their friends but, unfortunately, that was as far as Game Center integration in the app went.
Another updated to Doodle Jump was released a few minutes ago to finally include Game Center achievements. The update is available now in the App Store.
If you’ve been waiting for proper Game Center functionality in your favorite iPhone game ever…well, I guess your life is complete now.
A New Meaning to the word ‘iLife’
Coach Eric Cooper Sr. never thought he would need to save one of his player’s lives, nor did he think an iPhone app would assist him in doing so.
The LA Times reported that Xavier Jones, a player on Coach Cooper’s basketball team, collapsed during practice after his heart stopped beating from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a condition in which the heart muscle becomes hardened, making it more difficult for it to pump blood. Coach Cooper and an assistant coach rushed out to see what the problem was. After checking and not detecting a heartbeat, Cooper pulled out his iPhone and launched Phone Aid, which gave them detailed instructions on how to perform CPR to get his heart started again. Read more
Camera Connection Kit on iOS 4.2 No Longer Powers Some USB Devices - Bug or Feature?
When Apple unveiled the iPad, they also announced they would release a dongle called Camera Connection Kit to allow users to connect digital cameras and SD cards to their iPads. When the Camera Connection Kit became available, users found out that it was possible to plug a series of USB devices, keyboards (even Apple’s ones) and microphones in the iPad. The device running the old iOS 3.2 recognized the peripherals just fine.
As reported by Mark Gurman at 9to5mac last night, though, it seems like there is a bug on the recently released iOS 4.2 that prevents devices requiring more than 20mA of power to be connected to the iPad:
The essence of the issue with the connection kit and iOS 4.2 is that connected devices that require power of more than 20mA will no longer work. That means that many USB keyboards (Apple’s included) will no longer work with the iPad, as well as USB flash drives. When the user connects a device that is not self-powered and requires more than 20mA of power from the iPad they get the following alert: “The connected USB device requires too much power.
EA Gives My Friends One More Reason To Steal My iPad: Monopoly Classic
My closest friends are addicted to two things in this world: Monopoly and my iPad. Either they play the board game, or they grab my beloved tablet to play Fruit Ninja HD. I can tell you this happens every week, on a regular basis, and the only advantage of the iPad is that the battery eventually dies. Otherwise, they would play all night trying to break my girlfriend’s 912 points record at Fruit Ninja’s arcade mode. They’re currently stuck somewhere around 810.
The problem is, anyway, those two addictions will soon merge into one because of Electronic Arts, which is bringing Monopoly to the iPad. The actual Monopoly, the real one – in fact, the game will be released as “Monopoly Classic for iPad” later this month. Just before Christmas. Oh boy. Read more
Microsoft’s Silverlight To Gain iOS Support in 2011
At the Silverlight Firestarter event two days ago, Microsoft announced a new version of its cross-platform runtime and development platform, Silverlight. The new version, dubbed Silverlight 5, will see a first public beta release in the second quarter of 2011, with a final release to follow before the end of next year.
Silverlight 5 will focus on better, more interactive media experiences for Microsoft’s suite of business application; Redmond’s giant wants to offer a technology that will help developers create great user experiences. While we don’t know about developers’ support for the platform, it’s interesting that the new version of Silverlight will introduce support iOS devices. At the event in Redmond, Microsoft demoed the new Silverlight on an iPad, and confirmed that during 2011 they’ll roll out support for iOS and Windows Phone 7.
Good luck with the HTML5 and Flash competition, Microsoft.
Dropbox For Mac Hits Version 1.0
Dropbox, one of our favorite sync services here at MacStories, just hit version 1.0 on the desktop. The new build, released for Mac, Windows and Linux, it’s available for download on Dropbox official forums here.
If you’ve been following the development of Dropbox for Mac closely, then you know that this 1.0 build is actually a “remixed” version of the 0.8 that’s been available on the forums for a few months now. Dropbox 1.0 comes with a redesigned preference window that makes it easy to check on your computer’s settings and your account information, but the real new feature is selective sync: located in the Advanced tab in the settings, selective sync allows you to choose which folders already on your Dropbox account you want to sync back to your computer. If you want to keep a folder online but not locally, it will not download or sync to your computer. Very useful for files you just want to keep a backup of, but not an actual local copy.
Dropbox 1.0 is available here. As for what you can do with Dropbox, here’s where to start. Check out the full 1.0 changelog below. Read more