Seth Weintraub

From the 9to5toys.com:

Today only, Amazon.com offers the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 for Windows and Mac, model no. 65064073, for $119.99 with free shipping. That’s $30 under our November mention and the lowest total price we’ve seen. (It’s also a current price low by $60.) This software offers a variety of photo-editing tools.
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From 9to5toys.com:

Beach Camera via Buy.com offers the Seagate Expansion 1.5TB Portable USB 2.0 External Hard Drive, model no. STAX1500100, for $109.95. That’s $0.07/GB and the lowest total price we could find by $10. This drive operates at 5400 RPM and has built-in power management. Deal ends June 3.
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One small noteworthy bit from the latest 10.6.8 build.  It appears Apple is readying the Mac App Store for doing wholesale updates to Lion.  In the release notes, you get the following:

We’re pretty sure Apple will also sell packaged Lion upgrades but that remains to be seen.  Also 10.6.8 Identifies and removes the MacDefender Malware.

Thanks Schimanke!
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Apple dropped prices on current MacBook Air refurbs last night so that the base model now starts at just $829.  That’s $30 lower than yesterday and could mean Apple’s clearing some inventory out for a refresh, perhaps as soon as WWDC.  Or, perhaps not.

Thanks Jay!
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ThisIsMyNext posts some interesting news out of the Samsung camp.  After Apple requested to see some of Samsung’s unreleased products (most of which were publicly released before the judge granted the motion), now Samsung is requesting to see some of Apple’s unreleased products.  Namely the iPad 3 and the next iPhone whether it be the 4S or the iPhone 5.  Obviously, very few people have seen these unannounced products.

Samsung claims that it needs to see Apple’s future products because devices like the Droid Charge and Galaxy Tab 10.1 will presumably be in the market at the same time as the iPhone 5 and iPad 3, and Samsung’s lawyers want to evaluate any possible similarities so they can prepare for further potential legal action from Apple. It’s ballsy, but it’s not totally out of the blue..

In the unlikely event that Samsung gets access to Apple’s products, it will only be Samsung’s legal team that gets to see the devices.  Samsung’s manufacturing team probably already has some pretty good knowledge of the new products since they are bidding on/building some of the most important parts.

Nilay Patel, a former copyright attorney himself, thinks that this is a move to reignite negotiations between the companies.  If that is true, Apple seems content to let the disagreements go to court and let a judge/jury decide.

Cross posted from 9to5Google.com
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SAI:

Microsoft’s consumer PC sales growth has pretty much never declined. Not even when Microsoft released Vista. Not even when the economy went in the toilet.

But suddenly, the growth of sales is about to go negative, says Citi analyst Walter Pritchard.

If Windows starts to decline in numbers,  Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer might actually be in trouble.  If things weren’t bad enough, Microsoft also has to contend with a ChromeOS from Google and maybe even some ARM powered laptops from Apple.
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iGuides.ru is on location in Moscow where the iPad 2 is launched today. Even after a few months and undoubtedly lots of black market iPads making their way over there, iPad buyers are still excited.  Speaking of Black Market, the prices for iPad 2s in Russia are PRETTY NUTS, at least according to the retailler in the story with prices ranging from $1200-$1500 dollars depending on the configuration (below).  Other reports say they were a bit lower.

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Sean Kovack’s “original” Google Voice app, GV Mobile+ has now been ported to the iPad which will allow you to make calls using VoIP applications like Skype on the device or originate calls that will end up on landlines or cell phones.

The app  ($2.99 app store) also fixes some bugs on the iPhone version but isn’t quite polished yet on the iPad as you can see in the screenshot below:
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BGR says that Apple will wait until WWDC to announce Back to School specials and they will be largely the same as year’s past (free iPod touch/w purchase of Mac) with the notable addition of getting $200 off the purchase of an iPad with the purchase of a Mac.

Apple has traditionally had a back to school announcements during this time of year (‘06, ‘07, ‘08, ‘09, ‘10), though never at WWDC which seems at first blush to be a strange venue for such an announcement.
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US Uncut is staging actions across America on June 4 against Apple. The movement is demanding Apple remove its support of the Win America Campaign (WAC), an effort aimed at repatriating $1 trillion in foreign accounts back to America at just a 5% tax rate.

Press release below:

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Just a quick hit here: For those on Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks or Verizon FiOS TV, you can now WatchESPN on your iPad in full glory.   WatchESPN was launched for iPod and iPhone last month.

This includes channels like ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPN3.com. You need to be subscribed to ESPN’s linear programming via Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks or Verizon FiOS TV to use the app. Once you type in your cable subscriber credentials, you can stream live feeds to your device from anywhere. Who needs television, anyway?

Get it free here, iPad screenshots below.  Van Gundy!  (via SAI)
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Businessweek helps to paint the picture of what Apple’s cloud music service may look like:

Apple’s music service, which Engadget and other tech blogs are already calling iCloud, might well represent the future of recorded music. Armed with licenses from the music labels and publishers, Apple will be able to scan customers’ digital music libraries in iTunes and quickly mirror their collections on its own servers, say three people briefed on the talks. If the sound quality of a particular song on a user’s hard drive isn’t good enough, Apple will be able to replace it with a higher-quality version. Users of the service will then be able to stream, whenever they want, their songs and albums directly to PCs, iPhones, iPads, and perhaps one day even cars. And the music industry gets a chance at the next best thing after selling shrink-wrapped CDs: monthly subscription fees, à la Netflix  and the cable companies. “We will come to a point in the not-so-distant future when we’ll look back on the 99¢ download as anachronistic as cassette tapes or 8-tracks,” says Ross Crupnick, a music analyst at NPD Group.

Perhaps most interesting in all of this is that the Music Labels have been whining and moaning about how Apple dominates digital music and they have no control over anything including pricing.  And now they are giving Apple another huge lead on their competitors with this service which many believe will be unveiled at WWDC next month.  Fool me once, shame on you….?
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From 9to5Toys.com:

Today only, MacUpdate has FX Studio Pro for $19.99.  That’s half off of retail and the lowest price we’ve ever seen for this powerful post-processing photo editor for both professional photographers and amateurs.

We reviewed FX Studio Pro for Mac here last week.  It is on the Mac App Store for $40.
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Interesting news out of Amazon today.  They’ve announced their new Mac Download Store.  You’ve always been able to download software from Amazon (Got my Quicken for PC that way) but now it is on the Mac…and competes with Apple Mac App Store.  Interesting titles include Roxio’s Toast, Inuit Quicken and Microsoft Office….and a bunch of games.

To celebrate get $5 off by entering code SAVE5MAC in the Promo box.

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Earlier this week, Amazon started selling digital copies of Lady Gaga’s Born this Way album for a likely loss leading price of $.99.  The intent was likely to get people onto their Cloud locker (free with purchase) before Apple releases theirs or Google’s gets out of invite-only Beta.  Unfortunately, Amazon’s servers couldn’t handle the load and many users missed out.

So today they are doing it again: Born this Way with 20GB Cloud locker is again $.99. (One nice thing about Amazon’s locker is you can store documents and other files there as well.)
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http://i.cdn.turner.com/money/.element/apps/cvp/4.0/swf/cnn_money_384x216_embed.swf?context=embed&videoId=/video/technology/2011/05/24/ctd_square_apple_store.fortune

If Square gave these things away for free, everyone would take home 6 of them. A minimal charge insures that people who get these will actually use them.

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In a lengthy post, Technobuffalo goes behind the scenes of the iPhone Verizon launch earlier this year.  Supposedly, Verizon engineers had been working with it for six months – which put it at about the time that AT&T iPhone was released.  Interestingly, Steve Jobs said at the Antennagate press conference, that Apple was testing both Verizon and AT&T towers on campus.

Some notables from the story:

Though key employees and executives were in the loop, everyone else at the carrier knew little more than the rest of the public. And it would seem the higher ups wanted to keep it that way. No one talked about the Apple smartphone externally, and even internally, it was still a hush-hush operation. In fact, says the source, the word “iPhone” was never uttered; only its codename was referenced: It was called the “ACME” device.

And…
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If this product works as advertised, I see huge potential.  The new $99 Kanex mLinq adapter (PDF) does something pretty simple and incredible.  It plugs into your Intel-based Mac’s USB port and outputs to HDMI at full 1920×1080 (1080P)  HD resolution…with sound.  The device is even powered by the USB port so there are no messy extra wires to contend with.  You will need to install some software first (provided) but if it works at a respectable frame rate, this product is a winner in our book.

The device will do smaller display resolutions as well.

For older Macs that don’t have the Audio built into the Mini Displayport/Thunderbolt port, this may be the best option for HDMI video out.  For newer Macs that have maxed out their display ports, another one is now available.

We’re working on getting a demo and hope to have a review up shortly.
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Besides the extremely unfortunate loss of life, Bloomberg posts a dire scenario on iPad production laid out by IHS iSuppli this evening:

The drop in manufacturing will depend on how long the plant is closed following a May 20 explosion that killed three people and injured at least 15, according to ISuppli. The total could be even greater if the suspension of operations at the facility lasts longer than a month, the firm said.

Another Foxconn factory in Shenzhen that produces iPads may not be able to make up for the lost output, ISuppli said. The manufacturing breakdown may lead Apple to miss ISuppli’s forecast of 7.4 million iPad 2 shipments in the quarter ending in June, the El Segundo, California-based research firm said.

Not all analysts are as down with Apple Bull Shaw Wu saying there may not be cause to worry.  He said in a report today that the concerns are “overdone” and that production at other facilities is being ramped up to make up for the shortfalls. He expects Apple to sell 6.8 million iPads in the June quarter.

Related articles

• Foxconn closes all of its electronic parts polishing workshops for 2 days (9to5mac.com)
• The Foxconn explosion might affect up to one third of total iPad 2 output (9to5mac.com)
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We were expecting a MacBook Air-like device.  It turns out Dell’s new product, dubbed “Thinnest 15-inch PC on the planet” isn’t thinner than the 15-inch MacBook Pro I gave up a year ago for an Air.  That’s the same one that came out with the Unibody manufacturing process in October 2008.

Dell’s 15-inch XPS 15z is .97 inches thick compared to the MacBook PRo’s .95 inches.  It does weigh in at slightly less than the MacBook Pro (which is due for an update soon as well).

Update: Engadget has a comparison gallery:

All of that being said, the XPS 15Z  looks like a solid, loaded Sandy Bridge package for just $1000 – except the Windows OS of course.  Imagery and video below:
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scene from Foxconn explosion

According to the WSJ, Foxconn has suspended production across many of its plants in China for two days while the government investigates the explosion that killed three people and injured many more.

Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., a Taiwan-based company better known by the trade name Foxconn that operates dozens of factories across China, said it closed all of its workshops that handle polishing for electronic parts and products pending further inspections.

At issue appears to be the flammable aluminum dust that comes from polishing parts like the iPad 2’s aluminum back.  A student group out of Hong Kong called Sacom published a report on the dangers of flammable airborne aluminum dust in a report on May 6, saying workers complained about inhaling the dust and about poor ventilation. It isn’t clear whether the workshops referred to in Sacom’s report include the site of the accident.

The news is another setback for Foxconn, which is barely past a recent outbreak of public suicides.

Should the Chengdu production capacity not be restored anytime soon, Hon Hai may have to hire more expensive labor in Shenzhen, said Arthur Hsieh, an analyst at UBS.

While Foxconn has dominated the contract manufacturing industry until now, analysts say Hon Hai competitors like Singapore’s Flextronics Inc. and Taiwan’s Quanta Computer Inc. could try to woo some of its customers, including Apple.

The prospective plant closures and their affect on Apple’s iPad were assessed by Digitimes earlier today. 
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