USPTO honors Steve Jobs with patent exhibit in giant iPhones

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  • November 27, 2011 at 8:50 am

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Steve Jobs USPTO patent exhibit

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is honoring the accomplishments of Steve Jobs through an exhibit showcasing his patents. The exhibit is located in the atrium of the USPTO’s Madison Building at its campus in Alexandria Virginia. Access is free and it will run through January 15, 2012.

The exhibits consists a series of giant iPhones displaying more than 300 patents bearing Steve Jobs name and numerous trademarks associated with Apple.
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Grand Central Apple Store won’t be ready by Black Friday, probably coming early December

News

  • November 23, 2011 at 5:17 pm

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Grand Central Apple Store arriving soon

Though initial rumors mentioned that the new Grand Central Terminal Apple Store might open this Black Friday, it seems that there still is substantial work to be done on the site. Apple hasn’t officially announced an opening date, though it has sent around the photo you see above, with a non-committal “arriving soon”. Workers on the site have mentioned that the store would probably be ready by early December

As we’ve mentioned before, the new 23,000 square foot space will become Apple’s large retail location. Grand Central sees 750,000 people crossing its doorstep everyday, while the number goes up to 1 million during the holiday. As we’ve said, prepare for things to get even more crowded now. While waiting for the store to open its doors, head on after the break for a rendering of the retro-modern interior.
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Apple’s Grand Central Terminal store, largest in the world, opening this Black Friday

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  • November 21, 2011 at 3:09 am

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Apple's Grand Central Terminal store spy shot

It was back in July when Apple signed a ten-year lease for 23,000 square foot space in New York’s iconic Grand Central Terminal. Apple has since been meticulously renovating the space of Grand Central’s east balcony that will become the company’s largest store worldwide, a position currently held by the Covent Garden store in London.

Around 750,000 people pass through Grand Central daily and the number goes up to 1,000,000 during the holidays. Apple is now putting the final touches at the new retail location and the store should be open just in time for the holiday season, with the store opening on Black Friday or shortly after.
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What do all the new cloud icons in iTunes mean about iTunes Match and your iCloud library and how-to troubleshoot errors

Guides

  • November 15, 2011 at 7:54 am

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iTunes Match subscription email

If, like us, you were anxious to try out the new iTunes Match service offered by Apple, you’ve downloaded the latest version of iTunes, and subscribed to the $25/month service — more info on that here. You’ve run iTunes Match and your library is now fully accessible from iCloud. Note that running iTunes Match does not affect your locally stored files, also if you’ve painstakingly edited the meta data (i.e. Artist name, Album etc.) of your files, these will be transferred to the iCloud copies, even if the files are just matched and not uploaded.

So now you could be presented with a new set of icons in iTunes which show the status of each song in iTunes Match and iCloud. Apple has created a handy table to guide you through these cryptic new cloud figures, which however tell you a lot about the status of your library:
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Siri security protocol cracked, could allow it to be accessed on any device

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  • November 14, 2011 at 4:33 pm

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Siri ported to the iPhone 4 and iPod Touch

Ever since Apple released Siri, its voice control app, as an iPhone 4S feature only, there have been endless attempts to get the lady working on other iOS 5 devices. We’ve already seen Siri running on an iPhone 4 and iPod Touch, and the main challenge so far had been to get Apple’s servers to respond to Siri’s requests from non iPhone 4S devices.

Well the developers over at Applidium have one-upped everyone by cracking Siri’s security protocol and getting access to its recognition engine from any device. What they did was setup a fake local Apple server and listen to all of the Siri generated commands from their iPhone 4S going to this fake server. What they found is that Siri sends a unique iPhone 4S identifier with every command, which is what gets the server to respond. If you have an iPhone 4S you could potentially use your phone’s unique identifier and get Apple’s server to respond to any device, even a Mac or Windows PC or an Android phone.

Developers could write their own applications, that would send requests to Apple’s Siri server and get back responses. Obviously there are two issues here, first you need to own an iPhone 4S and then you never know when Apple might catch-up with this method and issue a patch effectively nulling it. In any case, very smart going to the developers, who have also provided a host of info on their website.
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iTunes Match is finally here, access your music from the cloud in high quality, US only for now

News

  • November 14, 2011 at 1:46 pm

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Apple iTunes Match

Although Apple missed its own end-October deadline for the release of iTunes Match, the $25 per year service is now available as a public beta for people living and breathing in the US.

The service basically uses iTunes to scan your music collection and gives you access to the same songs in high quality 256Kbps AAC on Apple’s servers. That is, unlike other cloud services, you don’t need to upload your files directly. It’s a neat idea since, it saves you the time and effort to upload files and gives you access to better quality rips, irrespective on the quality of your own files, accessible from all your iOS 5 devices. Of course if a file is not matched with one in Apple’s servers then it will be uploaded the old-fashioned way.

Because iTunes Match is in beta you get three free extra months on the annual subscription. Be warned that demand has been so high initially that Apple has suspended sign-ups temporarily. Those from other countries will have to wait unfortunately as Apple is still negotiating licensing deals outside the US.

To get started you need to download the latest version of iTunes (link after the break) 10.5.1 on your Mac or Windows PC. After installing, you can subscribe to the iTunes Match service from inside the iTunes Music Store — a link with iTunes Match will be highlighted on the right side of the main store page. After you sign-up and scanning and syncing is complete, on your iOS 5 device, go to ‘Settings’ > ‘Music’ and slide the iTunes Match switch to On.
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iOS 5.0.1 update released: promises to fix your iPhone battery woes, includes new iPad multitasking gestures

News

  • November 10, 2011 at 4:48 pm

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iPhone low battery level

A lot of iOS 5 users have complained of poor battery life, and we’ve reported that Apple has been working hard to fix the issue. Devices that could be affected include the iPhone 4S and any iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS that has been updated to iOS 5.

iOS 5.0.1 has been released today and promises to fix any battery woes that you’ve been facing. The update, also available for both iPads and the iPod Touch, includes security patches and various other fixes, while the original iPad also gets some new multitasking gestures.

If the update hasn’t reached your device yet, check Settings > General > Software Update on your device or connect it to a computer and launch iTunes.
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The Criterion Collection brings art house cinema to iTunes

News

  • November 9, 2011 at 1:29 pm

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The Criterion Collection on iTunes

If you are a film lover it’s almost certain you’ve come across The Criterion Collection. Established in 1984, The Criterion Collection is a video distribution company known for its amazing archive of important classics and contemporary art house cinema. They take great care in restoring film and presenting it in the best way possible. They helped to standardize the letterbox format and with their special editions regularly release extended directors’ cuts and include bonus features such as interviews, trailers, film critic commentary, in a sort of fun film school in a box.

Besides of their amazing quality I love Criterion releases for their incredible cover art.

Criterion had recently began offering online viewing of its masterpieces, with 57 titles on offer, and now the company has started testing the waters with iTunes. It has made pretty much the same collection of 46 world, American Indie and art-house movies available for you to rent or buy from iTunes. Each film costs $2.99 to rent (less than the $5 Criterion demands on its own website) and $14.99 to buy. Prices aren’t surprising as Criterion usually charges high prices leveraging on the niche and quality of its flicks.
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Steve Jobs 1990 interview, talking about the past and the future of computing

News

  • November 6, 2011 at 4:50 am

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Steve Jobs interview

Steve Jobs was rather camera shy, so only a handful of interviews with the technology visionary remain. One of these interviews was part of WGBH’s The Machine That Changed the World series, while the name of the episode is ‘the Paperback Computer’.

The interview was done in 1990, the year when NeXT released the NeXTcube, which Jobs touted as the first “interpersonal” computer that would replace the personal computer. The interview is an uncut version, so you get a peek at Jobs during all the outtakes.

There are a lot of interesting insights on personal computing and software. Jobs talks about how the success of a platform system is measured by the number of application software written for it. He discusses how the ‘hobbyist’ or as we would say today the ‘developer’ or ‘hacking’ community was one step ahead of the companies in realizing the true potential of hardware technology.

He also talks about how communication is the future of computing, while there are tons of references on the history of personal computers. You can find the entire 50 minute interview after the break.

Steve Jobs had left Apple in 1985 and founded NeXT that same year. Apple acquired NeXT in 1997 and Jobs returned to the company he co-founded, with the NeXTSTEP operating system finally evolving into Mac OS X.
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The lady speaks, Siri made to work on the iPhone 4 and iPod Touch (video)

News

  • October 30, 2011 at 7:56 am

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Siri ported to the iPhone 4 and iPod Touch

Siri, Apple’s very talkative personal assistant app, which we’ve covered in detail, was announced together with the iPhone 4S. Apple has stated that Siri will only be made available on its latest handset, meaning that if you wanted to try out Siri, you would have to get the iPhone 4S. Well, when there’s a will there’s a way, and Siri found itself ported (or should we say hacked into) ‘unsupported’ iOS 5 devices like the iPad and the iPhone 4. However, so far, although the application ran, Apple’s servers would refuse to respond to any requests, so Siri remained silent.

Well, bright developers Steve Troughton-Smith (@stroughtonsmith) and @chpwn, finally got the lady to answer back on an iPhone 4 and an iPod Touch 4G — at least from what we’ve seen in the video, which you can find after the break. According to Steve, Siri runs well on both the iPhone 4 and the iPod Touch, although the latter requires you to speak louder since its microphone was not designed to phone specs.
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Is your iPhone 4S or iOS 5 updated iPhone suffering from short battery life? Apple is looking into it

News

  • October 28, 2011 at 5:41 pm

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iPhone low battery level

Although not yet up to ‘battery-gate’ status, a lot of antagonized iPhone 4S owners are complaining of very poor battery lives. You only need to take a look over at Apple’s Support Communities and you will find a host of threads with issues related to fast battery drain under standby and short battery lives. There are also some iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS owners who have upgraded to iOS 5 and are also facing similar issues, so this might not be an issue with the iPhone 4S hardware but rather an issue with the new iOS 5 operating system.
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MacBook Pro range upgraded with faster processors, better graphics and more storage

News

  • October 24, 2011 at 6:25 am

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Apple MacBook Pro range

Apple has upgraded the MacBook Pro laptop range with faster Sandy Bridge processors, better graphics and more storage. The changes are internal rather than cosmetic, and prices remain the same, you just get more for your money.

The entry level $1,199 13-inch MacBook Pro gets a dual-core Core i5 2.4GHz processor and 500GB hard drive as standard, while for $1,499 you can bump the processor to a dual-core Core i7 2.8Ghz and storage to 750GB. The $1,799 and $2,199 15-inch models come with Core i7 2.2GHz and 2.4GHz processors, with 500GB and 750GB hard drives respectively; the latter gets a new AMD Radeon HD 6770M 1GB GDDR5 graphics card as well. Finally the $2,499 17-inch MacBook Pro gets a Core i7 2.4GHz processor, 750GB and the new Radeon HD 6770M 1GB GDDR5 graphics card.

The MBPs however haven’t received the expected bump to Bluetooth 4.0, that the 2011 Mac Mini, the MacBook Air and the iPhone 4S have received.
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Apple’s Siri, Google Voice Actions, the past and the future of voice control

EditorialsFeaturedNews

  • October 16, 2011 at 6:57 am

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iOS 5 Siri and Google Voice Actions for Android

Controlling a device with your voice is certainly nothing new. It’s been implemented time and time again and the execution has ranged from terrible, to gimmicky, to just ok, but it has never taken off. It’s been the sort of thing that you show off at family gatherings to impress older relatives but you never end up using.

It has existed on mobile devices for a while but with very limited capabilities. Feature phones could only do things like call up a number. Then, Google brought it on Android with Voice Search and Voice Actions expanding its capabilities. Now, Apple has officially taken a big step into voice control with iOS 5, the iPhone 4S and its personal assistant Siri. Could this mean that we will soon start using our devices in a different way?

Apple didn’t invent the artificial intelligence (AI) and voice recognition technology that makes Siri happen. In fact, Siri on iOS is the result of Apple’s purchase of same named company, Siri, and the use of third-party voice recognition technology (probably Nuance). But Apple has an incredibly successful history of doing exactly this, taking an existing but flailing technology, ironing out the quirks and making it the norm. The Macintosh made the mouse popular, the iPhone revolutionized touch-screen technology and Siri could be the beginning of a new way to interact with our devices.
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iOS 5 and Mac OS X Lion 10.7.2 now available for download

News

  • October 12, 2011 at 12:49 pm

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Apple iOS 5 released

We’ve been expecting this day to come and you can now finally update your iOS devices — iPhone 3G, iPhone 4, all iPads, 3rd and 4th generation iPod Touch — to iOS 5. This is a major update to iOS with over 200 new features, including Notifications (at last), iMessage, Newsstand, Reminder and of course iCloud integration.

As we warned you yesterday, you will need to be running iTunes 10.5 to update your devices. So if you haven’t done already, check out our coverage.
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