Seth Weintraub

From 9to5toys.com:

MacMall via eBay Daily Deal offers the factory-refurbished Western Digital Elements 3TB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive, model no. WDBAAU0030HBK-NESN, for $99.99 with free shipping. That’s $0.03/GB, $20 below our mention of a new unit from three days ago, and the lowest total price we’ve seen for this drive. (It’s $18 below the current price low for a new unit.) This drive uses GreenPower technology to reduce power consumption by up to 30%.

A Western Digital warranty applies; however, MacMall does not mention the length of this warranty on the product page.

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• Refurb Western Digital Caviar 1.5TB SATA Hard Drive for $45 + free shipping (9to5toys.com)
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• Refurb Western Digital Livewire AV Powerline Network Kit for $60 + $6 s&h (9to5toys.com)

We’ve been pretty envious of the Logitech Solar Wireless Keyboard that has been selling for months now for Windows PCs (though it does work on Macs with key mapping).   Amazon reviewers give it overwhelmingly positive feedback on the PC, it is thin and goes for three months without light.

Today, Logitech announced that a Mac version is on the way.  As a bonus, it is available in 5 colors including black, white and 3 different admittedly ugly pastels.  Interestingly, Logitech is selling it for $20 less than the list price of the $79.99 PC version at $59.99.  So much for the Mac Tax?

Besides the pastels, this product looks like a winner.  Sign us up.

Additionally, Logitech launched a $50 back mounted iPad speaker earlier this week.  It has batteries which last about as long as an iPad and also charges via USB.  I’m not immediately sure if I like this idea or more importantly, the implementation but, there it is:

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Details below:
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The update addresses a few issues including the Wifi issues we’ve been hearing much about.  It also appears to incorporate the recent Migration Assistant update.  It is available via Software Update and weighs in at a paltry 17.4MB on our rig.

The 10.7.1 update is recommended for all users running OS X Lion and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability and compatibility of your Mac, including fixes that:

– Address an issue that may cause the system to become unresponsive when playing a video in Safari
– Resolve an issue that may cause system audio to stop working when using HDMI or optical audio out
– Improve the reliability of Wi-Fi connections
– Resolve an issue that prevents transfer of your data, settings, and compatible applications to a new Mac running OS X Lion

For detailed information on this update, please visit this website:http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4764.

The Mac App store still lists Lion at 10.7 so it isn’t clear if new updaters will always have to do additional updates.  We’re also left wondering if this update fixes the “video performance after a sleep” that new Lion Mac users have been reporting.

Update: Interesting there is a direct link (here) for New Mac Mini and MacBook Air users (68MB) which updates a few more issues (below):

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John Martellaro at MacObserver got his protractor out and used those drawings that the City of Cupertino released this weekend to extrapolate the real size of Apple’s new HQ building.  In a word, it is BIG.

Given that comforting sanity check, I measured the diameter of the Apple spaceship as 1615 ft, plus or minus a few ft., depending on where one places the ruler. That’s a radius of 807.5 ft.

The outside measurement on the plans is 760′ but the large outside shader structures could account for the additional size.

Interestingly, that is a bigger footprint than the world’s largest office building, the Pentagon, which at five stories tall, two basement levels and with a smaller courtyard, still has significantly more usable square footage.

Also (using our geometry skillz) plugging the 1615 ft diameter into a perfectly round circle, you get an outside circumference of just under a mile (5074 ft).  That means taking some paperwork all the way to HR might be a lunch killer.

Update: Obama Pacman notes that Apple could install 3 full sized Football fields in the courtyard (below).
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From 9to5toys.com:

Today only, Amazon offers the Canon PowerShot A495 10-Megapixel Digital Camera in Blue, model no. 4260B001, for $49. With free shipping, that’s $11 under our mention from three weeks ago and the lowest total price we’ve seen for this camera in any color. (It’s also a current price low by $61.) Features include a 2.5″ LCD, 3.3x optical zoom, video capture, SDXC/HC MMC+ card slot, USB 2.0 and PictBridge connectivity, and more.
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We had some time to check out the Grand Central Apple Store…or the shell that will become it one day.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVQdhOs8u_Q]

Yes, it is just a gutted shell at this point but this should provide a good “before” to the glorious “after” video.
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It’s a glaring hole in Apple’s MacBook line: The ability to access 3G (4G?) networks without tethering or using a 3G hotspot. Apple CEO Steve Jobs told the USAToday in 2008 that the reason that he didn’t want to build that functionality into MacBooks was that it invited complexity and locked users into a carrier.

Air does not come with the built-in ability to connect to a speedy wireless data network run by various cellular carriers. Jobs told me last week that Apple considered it but that adding the capability would take up room and restrict consumers to a particular carrier. Through a USB modem, he says, you can still subscribe to wireless broadband with your favorite carrier.

When Jobs says “considered it”, this is what he means:

An Ebay auction today (via MacRumors) shows that Apple was getting ready to release such a MacBook Pro – all the way back in 2007.

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The prototype Santa Rosa MacBook Pro has a SIM card slot which is identified as a Dynastream ANT2USB card. In the US, that would have worked on T-Mobile or AT&T as well as many international GSM carriers. The seller originally bought it from a Craigslist ad as a non working machine for parts. Upon opening it, he realized that this was no ordinary MacBook Pro (if the huge antenna didn’t give it away!). He got the machine into working order (thought 3G is not tested) and is selling it as-is, “no guarantees”.

It isn’t certain why Apple never opted to go with a 3G option in any of its Macbooks. Perhaps the complexity and the numbers never made sense. Now that almost everyone carries a Personal Hotspot capable phone in their Pocket, it may not ever make sense.

Full Gallery and seller story below:

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From 9to5Toys (RSS)(Twitter):

Beach Camera via eBay Daily Deal offers the Toshiba Canvio 3.0 Plus 750GB USB 2.0 Portable 2.5″ External Hard Drive, model no. E05A075PBU2XK, for $57.99. With free shipping, that’s $0.08/GB, $7 under our December mention, and the best total price we’ve seen for any 750GB portable drive. (It’s a current price low by $17.) It runs at 5400 rpm and features an 8MB cache. Deal ends September 1 at 3:25 pm ET.
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(Thanks Brian Fu)

As five Apple Stores open up today including Anchorage 5th Avenue Mall (Anchorage, Alaska), Fashion Place (Murray, Utah), Southland (Cheltenham, Victoria, Australia), Conestoga: (RIM HQ Waterloo, Ontario, Canada) I Gigli: (Florence, Italy), the biggest store of the quarter and possibly the most expensive Apple Store in history is getting its wraps taken off in Hong Kong’s IFC this week.

Apple COO Tim Cook mentioned that the Hong Kong Store was set to open this quarter, along with 30 others in the Earnings Call last month.

Thanks Tom Read

We’ve heard from two sources, one a credit fulfillment processor, that the grand opening is set for September 24th.  It spans six lanes of traffic and three-plus floors of Hong Kong’s IFC building.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IabjY5AmWOk&start=38]

Update: Richard Lai got some pictures inside this-a-way.

Another monster Hong Kong Apple Store is set to open in Causeway Bay later this year.  Another shot below (Readers, please send more!):
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Our German is more than a little rusty (and so is Google’s) but it appears that five devices that are suspected of being either iPhone 5s or knockoffs were confiscated at the Munster-Osnabruck airport on July 21st.

It still isn’t certain if they were real or fake but it is newsworthy that Germans are confiscating iPhones, real or fake, at the Airports since there are so many fake iPhones coming out of China, India and Sears these days. Maybe they were just Samsung Galaxies?

The men in possession of the devices were coming from Turkey.

It appears that the customs officials are working with Apple to determine the origin of the devices.

Benm.at has the story

Here’s another version of the story.

Update: Reader Till translated the important bits, below:

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In a series of PDFs released today (Intro, Site Plan/Landscaping, Floor Plans and Renderings), the City of Cupertino released detailed floor plans of Apple’s 20,000 plus person super-structure.

The building, affectionately dubbed “the Mothership” was announced by Apple CEO Steve Jobs on June 7th, just days after WWDC earlier this year.

Jobs called the new building “a spaceship” and said Apple will use its experience in building retail store masterpieces to construct this “architectural landmark”. Parking underneath, the building would perhaps be used for events like the WWDC – Jobs mentioned that it would have a large auditorium and a single cafeteria [below] that could seat 3,000 at a time.

Cupertino’s Mayor went on record a few weeks later saying “there was no way they weren’t going to approve the deal”.

The massive building’s plans detail the main building and a mostly subterranean adjacent parking structure with Solar roof (below).

Full plans embedded after the break:

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Kara Swisher, exactly one year to the day ago:

According to several sources, and as has been widely expected, Apple will once again be holding its annual autumn special event, closer to mid-September this time. Apple (AAPL), which has had a fall hello-there confab every year since 2005, waited until August 31 last year to announce its “Let’s Rock” event on September 9 at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco.

The event turned out to be on September 1st. – 9 days earlier, rather than later, than the previous year’s September 9th launch.

Miss.

Bloomberg, a fairly reliable publication, also missed that one, but only by a week.

With that in mind, AllThingsD‘s Kara Swisher lashed out at bloggers belligerently this evening (right) saying the iPhone 5 event would be held in “Oc … to … ber”, not September as had been forecasted and then shot down earlier today.

She didn’t take kindly to attempts at clarification. She cited a previous AllThingsD report which said the iPhone 5 would launch in October.

For the record, we do believe that the iPhone 5 will launch in October.

At this point, it is a good to keep in mind that Apple’s release schedules are fairly fluid and any forecasting is dangerous because of unforeseen setbacks that can delay launches.

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We’ve been hearing so much about the new iPhone 5 that it has all but drowned out any talk of the iPods, which are traditionally released at the September Apple event as well. There hasn’t been any definitive word, but I expect them to get an update as well before the holiday shopping season.

The new iPod touch will likely head in the same direction as the iPhone 5 – faster A5 processor and better backside camera (hopfully 3MP w/ autofocus?) etc. I don’t expect a lot of innovation on what is already a pretty incredible little device. Perhaps a $199 entry level price tag (a $30 drop – which we already see quite often) will be the marquee new spec.

The iPod classic wasn’t upgraded last year and wasn’t on the keynote slide (below) where Steve Jobs said “we’ve got All-new designs for every model” which kind of makes it feel dead to me.

You can still buy classics in their 2 year old form a year later but with iCloud kicking into gear, I think Apple’s chances of killing it this year are better than keeping it around. More awesome/unlikely would be giving it Wifi and turning out a big HDD wireless media hub like the Seagate GoFlex Satellite.

But where I think there will be real innovation, however, will be the iPod nano…

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Nimbuzz points us to a Orange France job description which seems to indicate that an intern will be studying the impacts of an iPhone 5 on consumers’ use of mobile internet devices.

It’s also interesting that Voice Over IP/IM is such a strong importance on this device

* Comparison uses VoIP / IM on all the solutions available on the market: Skype, MSN, Gtalk, yahoo, but also, Fring, Nimbuzz, Viber, Tango.

Fluent English is a requirement so if you are reading this now and in Paris, you know where to go.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEhowtIJQS8&hd=1]

This is that clone that is supposedly based on the real iPhone 5.  It is interesting how far the cloning business has come…at least in China.

BTW, built-in stylus FTW!

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghdTqnYnFyg&start=120]

(Substitute PowerPC for Intel and Intel for ARM)

There are a lot of people who think Apple is going to eventually move its “Mac” line to iOS. In fact we found it curious when Apple turned ‘MacOSX’ to ‘OSX’ as of Lion earlier this year.

Steve Jobs and Apple in general are very sensitive to CPU power issues with their push to make high end devices thinner.

As part of the WSJ article on Intel spending $300 million on developing MacBook Air alternatives (a hint in itself – why does Intel need to create competition for its own Air), it was revealed that Apple was threatening to leave Intel’s ‘low power’ processors if they didn’t drastically cut power.

Welch said Apple informed Intel that it better drastically slash its power consumption or would likely lose Apple’s business. “It was a real wake-up call to us,” he said.

What are the alternative processors for the MacBook Air? AMD? Not likely (though not impossible).

The big alternative is a platform switch to ARM which certainly schools the Atom Chip in terms of power consumption. It would also mess with a lot of non-App Store Apps built on legacy code.

But, you know Apple would love to create a cheaper, thinner, more power efficient iAir type of hybrid device that still operated like a laptop. In fact, Lion seems to already be heading in that direction.

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Gartner’s latest global smartphone numbers are out and if your name isn’t iOS or Android, the future looks pretty bleak.  While iOS continues to gain share at pace even without a new model release (up one point for the quarter and over 4 points year over year), the bigger story continues to be Android’s outright theft of marketshare from Symbian.  Just in the last quarter, 10 percent of the market shifted from Symbian to Android and for the year, the number is close to 20%

Meanwhile Blackberry continued its paced slide down another 2 points quarter over quarter while Samsung’s Bada made modest gains. In the “Other” category, Windows Phone 7 somehow lost market share falling from 2% to 1% and Windows Mobile is now off the charts.  HP’s webOS  is somewhere in the “other” as well with Meego and the ghosts of smartphone past.

Graph via PED, cross posted on 9to5Google.com
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Readers have alerted us that their Lion Recovery Sticks have started arriving.  Interesting upgrade from the Snow Leopard Stix that come with the MacBook Airs.

We discovered that you don’t necessarily need to buy these for the list price of $69, Apple will send these free in special cases.

Rather than spend $69 on one of these, you could drop $8 on this fugly Kingston 8GB USB stick and add a bit of this.

Backside below:
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Apple’s now on top of the business world, hopefully for good on the way to a $1T.  (Yeah, we are milking this one.)
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A year and a half after the whole “Gizmodo buys a lost iPhone 4” case, the San Mateo District attorney levied a decision in the matter.

The San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office has filed misdemeanor charges against two individuals for the misappropriation of an iPhone 4 prototype that was lost by an Apple employee and subsequently recovered in a Redwood City establishment by the defendants on March 25, 2010. Brian Hogan, 22, of Redwood City was charged with one count of misappropriation of lost property, and Sage Wallower, 28, of Emeryville, was charged with misappropriation of lost property, and possession of stolen property. Their arraignment is scheduled for Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 9:00 in Redwood City. After a consideration of all of the evidence, it was determined that no charges would be filed against employees of Gizmodo.

Interesting that they use the terms “misappropriation of lost property”. Perhaps the statements about “stolen” were premature and inappropriate.

Gawker/Gizmodo had this to say:

We are pleased that the District Attorney of San Mateo County, Steven Wagstaffe, has decided, upon review of all of the evidence, that no crime was committed by the Gizmodo team in relation to its reporting on the iPhone 4 prototype last year. While we have always believed that we were acting fully within the law, it has inevitably been stressful for the editor concerned, Jason Chen, and we are glad that we can finally put this matter behind us.

We’re interested to hear what Apple has to say on the matter and of course have reached out.

The penalties for violating CA Penal Code 485 PC are defined as up to a year in county jail and a $1,000 fine.

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Yesterday, Apple blocked Samsung’s Galaxy Tab in the EU as it had in Australia previously. Today, it is blocking Motorola’s XOOM.

According to Reuters, this is a high risk strategy for Apple maintaining its market share lead. The cases could take months, if not years to come to court and Apple will have to provide more substantial evidence in subsequent court cases that the design of the Galaxy infringed its patents or copied their designs in order to make any bans permanent. So, they aren’t done deals. And if Apple Loses, it will owe Samsung a lot of money.

If Apple loses it will be liable for the business lost by Samsung in the meantime.

“Apple has a strategy of filing patents, getting some protection and trying to prevent other people from entering the market in the short-term,” said Nathan Mattock, an intellectual property lawyer at Marque Lawyers in Sydney. “If Apple’s wrong it will have to pay Samsung a considerable amount of damages, so it’s potentially quite risky.”

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