Apple Buys Face Recognition Company Polar Rose

Norwegian website Mac1 is reporting that Apple has bought all the shares of a Swedish company called “Polar Rose”, which specializes in face recognition softwares more advanced than Apple’s implementation in iPhoto.

As you can see in the video embedded below, the “Recognizr” app from Polar Rose can save face information in seconds and link a person to various social profiles on the internet such as Flickr and Youtube. It’s demoed on a Samsung phone, but we wonder (if true) what this acquisition might bring to our devices in the future. A more capable iPhoto? Perhaps that user tracking patent we heard about a few weeks ago? We’ll see. But I’m pretty sure that this is definitely mobile-oriented. [via 9to5mac] Read more

Latest Samsung Galaxy Tab Commercial Reminds Me of Something

For those who don’t know, the Galaxy Tab is the tablet Samsung is set to release soon worldwide - and it runs Android. It also runs Adobe Flash and all the app currently available in the Android Marketplace - even though they’re not build for tablets.

So, for those who also missed the previous software…debate, we have a sparkling new commercial here focused on showing the great features of the Galaxy Tab. It reminds me of something, but I’m really not sure. Check it out below, and please help figuring out this stuff in the comments. Read more

Remember Newton OS? You Can Run It on the iPhone Now [Video]

Here’s a great video to kick off this Monday morning: available over at Google Code, the Einstein MessagePad emulator allows you to run Newton OS on other devices such as the iPhone (seen in the embedded video below), iPod Touch and, yes, iPad.

From what we can see in the video everything seems a little sluggish and slow, but come one - it’s the Newton OS on your iPhone. Black and white colors included. If you’re brave enough, check out the instructions to get it running on your iPhone here. Read more

China Gets A Real iPhone 4 on September 25th

After months of speculation, debates with the Chinese government over wifi implementation in the iPhone 3G and a bunch of well-faked ripoffs, China is getting the iPhone 4. The real thing. Starting from September 25th Chinese Apple fans will be able to purchase the new iPhone in retail locations and Unicom stores, with a price tag of CNY4,999 for the 16GB model and CNY5,999 for the GB one. As Engadget reports, that’s about $743 and $892, respectively.

Apple is also opening a new retail location in Beijing on September 25th. Chinese MacStories readers: tips[at]macstories.net is open for you to send pics and videos of your line experience. Check out the full press release after the break. Read more

Apple, The Next Step Is AirFiles

I installed iOS 4.2 beta on my iPad, but haven’t been able to check out the new AirPlay or AirPrint features yet: I don’t have an Apple Airport Express station to configure with my stereo, nor I have a compatible HP printer in the office. Still, I know these two new features pretty well: AirPlay is Apple’s take on how you should be able to consume digital content in the living room, AirPrint allows you to print documents from your iPad and iPhone with a few taps. Both of them are great features. I want to focus on AirPlay, though: as Seth Weintraub puts it, AirPlay is Apple’s “go to market” strategy - in a way that this single feature will let users easily hook their iPhones and iPads to the Apple TV to effortlessly share SD content, and eventually pay for HD versions using Apple’s TV own rental system. Any kind of video content can be streamed using AirPlay, as long as it uses a standard media controller and it’s encoded using the popular H.264 video format.

I haven’t tried it personally, but I already know AirPlay is going to be huge amongst iPad and iPhone owners once the new Apple TV will be available. This kind of one-tap streaming and sharing of content between devices has got me thinking, though: what if Apple shipped “AirFiles”, a built-in system to share any kind of documents across mobile devices and computers? Read more