Mac App Store To Launch Next Week?

According to a rumor posted by Appletell, Apple may launch the Mac App Store as early as next week:

An inside source has just told us that Apple is targeting a Monday, December 13th launch of the Mac App Store. The company apparently told developers to have their software prepared for a launch as early as Monday the 6th of this month, but our contact would be shocked if that happened at this point. Apple has made no official announcements regarding this, and delays could always happen, but there’s a push to be launched before Christmas, well ahead of the previously estimated January release. Guess from where this push has come.

The website claims that Apple is ahead of its schedule for the new store opening, and Steve Jobs wanted a December 6th launch, but it didn’t happen. We didn’t hear anything from developers about a December 6th release, we just know that there’s a deadline for apps to be submitted that should end sometimes later this month.

At the Back to the Mac event on October 20th, Steve Jobs said the Mac App Store would launch in 90 days – which made us think of a late January 2011 opening. Last week, Apple seeded a new build of OS X 10.6.6 to developers to ensure Mac App Store compatibility and even clarified its position on the availability of trials and beta apps in the new Store.

[via MacRumors]

Legendary Transparent Mac SE Doesn’t Last Long On eBay

This Mac SE wasn’t meant for public release, it was a special unit designed for Apple’s employees – and most specifically, designers – so they could look at the actual components while using the machine. A transparent Mac SE coming straight from the late ’80s, sold on eBay for more than $25,000.

The item has been sold pretty quickly (heck, Jobs himself might have bought it feeling the nostalgia), and it comes from an ex-Apple employee who worked at the R&D team back in the day. Whoever bought it will have to boot it off of an 800k floppy, as the hard disk boot isn’t working anymore.

So, new transparent Mac SE owner: congratulations. You own a very rare piece of Apple’s history now. [Gizmodo via eBay]

$100,000 School Program Gets Every 4th-Grader An iPad

A $100,000 pilot program at two elementary schools in Hancock County will allow hundreds of fourth graders to get iPads and start reading books, doing math and other different assignments on them. The program, which will take place at Weirton Heights and Allen T. Allison elementary schools, was paid for with the help of federal grant money, but teachers are already looking for ways to completely customize the iPad experience for each child. Read more

This 5-Row iOS Keyboard Makes My Typing Faster | Cydia Store

5-Row Keyboard iOS 4 is a $0.99 tweak available in the Cydia Store which, you guessed it, adds a fifth row to the standard iOS keyboard. Most specifically, it adds a numeric row so that you won’t have to constantly change the keyboard layout when having to type numbers. That happens every day to me, especially when typing password, and it’s incredibly annoying.

This hack makes the keyboard bigger, but I haven’t really noticed any difference. Actually, my mobile typing has improved as I can get sentences and passwords done faster. To configure the tweak, install it from Cydia and activate it as a theme in Winterboard. Then open your keyboard settings in General -> Keyboard, select your default keyboard and apply the new 5-Row layout.

Useful.

Infinifolders Updated, Now Supports iOS 4.2.1 On iPad | Cydia Store

Infinifolders by chpwn is one of our favorite Cydia tweaks here at MacStories: not only it allows you to put as many apps as you wish inside iOS folders (current limitation is 12 on the iPhone, 20 on the iPad), it also lets you customize the way folders become “scrollable” and activate a neat vertical paging functionality.

The latest update, version 1.3.3-1, adds full iOS 4.2.1 support for the iPad, which can now enjoy the power of unlimited folders as well. I’ve been testing the update on my jailbroken iPad and it works perfectly.

If you’re considering a jailbreak for your iPad running iOS 4.2 but looking “limited” in certain features, Infinifolders is one of those tweaks that leverage the real potentialities of the Cydia community. Recommended.

Next Angry Birds Update Coming On Valentine’s Day?

First came the iPhone version. Then a bigger iPad one. With the two versions selling like hotcakes in the App Store, Rovio released a Halloween edition. Last week, they updated it to include some Christmas-themed levels and renamed the new version to “Seasons”.

Angry Birds is an unstoppable pop culture phenomenon, something Daring Fireball’s John Gruber calls “today’s Pac Man”. We all know Angry Birds is insanely popular, yet Rovio doesn’t seem to be willing to stop and enjoy the money anytime soon. According to a rumor published by Pocket Gamer, the developers are already eyeing a Valentine’s Day release in February 2011. Read more

Kid Who Sold White iPhone Kits Forced To Shut Down His Website

Remember Fei Lam, the kid who made a small fortune selling white iPhone conversion kits and received a letter from a private investigator on behalf of Apple to end operations? Look at the sidebar here on MacStories, there’s a promo banner for his old website “WhiteiPhone4Now.com”.

Two days ago I noticed the website was down, but I thought Lam was just changing DNS or something. After all, he seemed pretty sure of the fact that he wanted to keep on selling his kits no matter what. Well it turns out, Apple won. In an email to Cult of Mac Lam confirmed he had to shut the website down, “possibly permanently”.

No further details have been provided, but we can only assume the story got serious the moment Lam claimed he wouldn’t stop selling conversion kits and Apple legal was after him. Foxconn also confirmed they didn’t know anything about white iPhone parts being sold to Lam, so it’s very likely that he got them from grey market. Who knows.

We wish the best of luck to Lam for his future efforts, which we’re pretty sure won’t include selling alternative Apple components.