9to5 Staff

Look, everyone knows this thing is the best desktop computer money can buy.  But that doens’t mean we get sick of hearing about it.   Ken Mingis at Computerworld got his review in today and had some very interesting observations:

• It’s important to note that the 27-in. model is $100 less than the $1,799 24-in. iMac that preceded it…or the $1799 30-inch Cinema Display that only has 10% more pixels.
• It is so good, it could bring back the desktop [nah!] But with an absolutely stunning screen, a lot of under-the-hood performance improvements, the wireless keyboard and the new mouse, and flexibility that makes it fit in at work or at home, this new iMac could lead to a resurgence in desktop sales for Apple.
• The screen, which manages to crowd in 109 pixels per inch, is the biggest selling point[Agree!]

• [BluRay is biggest omission.]  According to Apple, it’s possible to connect up an external Blu-Ray player — but an adapter will be needed to convert the HDMI signal coming from the player to the MiniDisplay Port on the iMac. And a scaler would be needed because of the screen’s high resolution. Apple doesn’t sell those, though, so it’ll be up to another company to come up with a solution.
• [Re: Magic Mouse] I’m less enamored of the two-finger swipes, because you have to hold the mouse in place with your thumb and ring fingers while swiping with your index and middle fingers.
• The body of the iMac is now made entirely of aluminum. The flat black plastic used on the back in earlier models is gone, allowing Apple to use its unibody design process to carve the chassis out of a solid block of aluminum.

• "Does this thing belong in the office or living room?’

Great question.  Maybe it is best to get two.

If you want to know what those Droid phones (which BGR says are coming on November 6th) are capable of, Google has put out a video detailing the major new features in Android 2.0 messaging APIs. They are killing us softly with the unified inbox.  Apple? Care to respond?  Please?

Apple appears to be getting ready to launch its fourth Manhattan Store (just in time for the holiday shopping season).  This week the scaffolding was pulled back to reveal a red curtain covering over the structure.  The sign says "Opening Soon, Apple Store Upper West Side".

The new 67th St. and Broadway Store has been called "The most spectacular store in the chain".

The image of a red curtain hides the construction of Apple’s latest store. (Credit: David Carnoy/CNET)

iFoAppleStore has some renderings and a flyover video pasted below.

ifoAppleStore says:

the glass is 54 feet tall, 75 feet wide, and 30 feet deep and that when the plastic film is peeled off, the storefront will "present a blue-green, filtered view into the store, which building permits indicate will be one level above ground, and two below ground." A circular glass staircase will link the street level to the first basement level, while the sub-basement will house back-of-house operations, tipsters said.

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=6754816&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=ffffff&fullscreen=1

Flyover during construction

Apple’s iPhone is biting at the heels of current consumer smartphone favourite, RIM’s BlackBerry, with more consumers than ever now favouring the Apple phone.

ChangeWave Research director, Paul Carton, dropped us a line today to let us know the findings of ChangeWave’s latest Consumer Smart Phone survey, titled, “Apple Soars Behind iPhone 3GS Momentum”.

The September 14-21 survey offers a look at the impact of the new Apple and Palm offerings – along with an update on Research In Motion and overall smartphone industry trends going forward.

The survey of 4,255 consumers shows strong growth continues in the smart phone market, with 39% of respondents now reporting they own a smart phone – up 2-pts since June and nearly double the level of two years ago.

“Looking ahead,” ChangeWave informs, “while the current survey shows a slight dip in consumer buying plans for the next 90 days, that’s to be expected in the aftermath of the huge iPhone 3GS and Palm Pre product launches back in June.”

Interstingly, 11.6% of consumer surveyed now say they plan on buying a smart phone in the next 90 days – 3-pts less than in June but still one of the highest percentages ever recorded in a ChangeWave survey.

With 40% share, RIM remains the current market share leader among consumers, but has fallen 1-point since the previous survey and is at its lowest level in two years.

Apple – which now has 30% share – has “seen a huge market share jump since the previous survey,” ChangeWave tells us. “Not only has the iPhone 3GS release enabled them to gain 5-pts overall – for the first time it has also placed them within striking distance of the number one spot in the consumer market.”

Palm (7%) remains far behind in third place, but we note that this is the first survey in nearly two years where its share hasn’t fallen – and that’s a clearly encouraging sign.

There’s more: Apple remains the leader in terms of planned buying going forward — 36% of those who plan to purchase a smart phone in the next 90 days say they’ll get an iPhone.

More important, the iPhone continues to maintain the highest customer satisfaction rating in the industry among major cell phone manufacturers — with 74% of owners reporting they’re Very Satisfied with their iPhone.

Gizmodo got some mixed signals for Apple Marketing EVP Phil Shiller today.  They first heard Schiller say, "There are not going to be any new Apple products this year" which they then posted including the bit:

Don’t hold your breath or credit card. That magic MacBook with the new Intel CPU and chipset? Not gonna happen until 2010. Carry on.

Apple, however called them up and said that a better way to put it would be that the "Holiday lineup is set". 

Update: Interesting, after reading this, Apple called and said that the actual quote is "The holiday lineup is set." Weird. As far as I know, if "the holiday lineup is set," then there would not be any new products in 2010, right?

What does it all mean?  Will there be updates to Apple’s MacBook Pros, maybe a camera for that iPod touch?

In possibly related news, Aperture X looks like it might be shipping before the end of the year.  We saw the Amazon clue last week.  Hardmac says it was a phoney date assigned and the product will be shipping with the new name that aligns the product with Apple’s OS X.

Sure, Microsoft Office may be the de facto standard for word processing, spreadsheets and all that sort of work-related thing, but does it have to be? After all, even the student edition sets you back $126.99 – isn’t that cash safer and happier in your pocket, or even spent on one of our regularly updated bargain Toys?

If you’re looking for an alternative, there’s a new free toy in town, where NeoOffice.org has introduced a new version of popular, OS X-friendly, open source office suite, NeoOffice.

This adds Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard support, and includes NeoOffice Mobile, which provides a way to securely share NeoOffice files with other users and other computers.

“In Mac OS X 10.6, Apple made many changes that caused all previous versions of NeoOffice to fail to install or fail to launch,” the team of developers in charge with the suite says. “This release is the first NeoOffice release that should install and launch on Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.”

NeoOffice is a fully-featured set of office applications (including word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, and drawing programs) for Mac OS X.

Based on the OpenOffice.org office suite, NeoOffice incorporates dozens of native Mac features and can import, edit, and exchange files with other popular office programs such as Microsoft Office. Unlike previous releases (bar v.3) it doesn’t require use of the X11 windowing system.

Here are some key features of "NeoOffice":

· Uses the Native Mac OS X Spellchecker
Unlike OpenOffice.org, NeoOffice has an enhanced spellchecker that uses the Mac OS X spellchecking dictionary. With this enhanced spellchecker, users no longer need to download and install spellchecking dictionaries if Mac OS X already has a dictionary for their language.

· Uses the Native Mac OS X Address Book
NeoOffice has included the ability to use the Mac OS X address book as a data source. This feature, which was developed by OpenOffice.org, is expected to be in their OpenOffice.org 2.3 release.

· Handles Most Microsoft Office 2007 Word, Excel, and PowerPoint Files
NeoOffice includes the ODF Add-in for Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. The ODF Add-in is an open source project that makes it possible for NeoOffice to open, edit, and save most files in the Office 2007 Word, Excel, and PowerPoint formats. This feature is not available in current Mac versions of Microsoft Office and will not be available until Office 2008 for the Mac is released.

· Handles Macros in Excel Files
NeoOffice includes the Excel macro support developed by Novell’s ooo-build project. The ooo-build project is an open source project that continually develops feature enhancements to OpenOffice.org.

· Uses Mac OS X fonts
NeoOffice uses the same fonts that all of your other Mac OS X applications use.

· Handles international keyboards
Unlike OpenOffice.org, NeoOffice will use any keyboard layout that you use. Also, if you switch your keyboard layout while NeoOffice is running, NeoOffice will automatically switch as well.

· Native printing support
NeoOffice supports printing using Mac OS X’s native printing functionality. Like other Mac OS X applications, you can use NeoOffice to print, preview, or save a document to a PDF file.

· Native copy and paste support
NeoOffice supports copying and pasting using Mac OS X’s native clipboard so you can copy and paste text and images between NeoOffice and other Mac OS X applications.

· Native drag-and-drop support
NeoOffice supports native drag-and-drop so you can drag and drop text and images between NeoOffice and other Mac OS X applications.

There you have it – fewer bells, whistles and extra features you’ll never see or use, but a whole heap cheaper on your pocket, NeoOffice 3.0.1
 

Another day, another Apple media-related tablet rumour, and this time the leak’s coming from way down under, Australia. That’s where the Sydney Morning Herald has reportedly been chatting with high level media people as it ties deals together to present Slate as the world’s best eBook reader.

Apple’s talking with media execs to firm up deals to get their content available to the device, tipped to be a larger version of the iPhone that’s small enough for a handbag but won’t fit your pocket.

The company has reportedly shared device specifications with media companies in order to find out if they want to offer their content to it.

This news follows word from New York Times executive editor Bill Keller, who told staff in a meeting he didn’t know would be filmed and published as video online: "I’m hoping we can get the newsroom more actively involved in the challenge of delivering our best journalism in the form of Times Reader, iPhone apps, WAP, or the impending Apple slate, or whatever comes after that."

In Australia, Fairfax Media’s director of marketing and newspaper sales, Robert Whitehead, hinted that he was aware of the upcoming device in August.

"We’re continuously examining all options for extending the reach of our mastheads and we’ll be very interested to see what Apple comes up with," he said.

The report suggests Apple is offering a much better deal than Amazon does for publishers launching Kindle content – while Amazon takes the lion’s share of the 70.30 split, Apple’s deal sees the computer company taking just 30 percent.

This likely reflects Apple CEO Steve Job’s recent comments to the New York Times, in which he characterised eBooks as “not a big business” for Apple, predicted standalone eBook readers won’t do as well as multi-use devices, and voiced doubt at the depth of Amazon’s Kindle sales.

That Apple has intended to present the new device as an eBook reader of some kind has been known for some time, as a wave of eBook publishers have been enthusiastically making content available via the App Store.

The tablet is expected to host a 10-inch screen, WiFI and 3G connectivity, and to offer all the iPod features (music, film, video, audiobooks), along with the capacity to run some iPhone apps, as well as to offer a sophisticated eBook reader, potentially itself using technologies the company may have quietly acquired.

That last slice of speculation has a history in previous moves – for example, Apple purchased Cassady & Greene’s SoundJam app in order to provide the architecture for iTunes in advance of the release of the iPod.

Foxconn has reportedly been contracted to produce 300,000 units of the new device each month, a device Apple has been engaged in development of since at least 2003.
 

Fresh from helping create a shortage of flash memory components, Apple seems set to create yet another shortage, this time reducing one supplier’s stock of image sensors, as used in the iPhone and iPod nano cameras.

While news that strong seasonal demand from Apple will hit supplies from OmniVision of these image sensors is bound to spark another hubbub of expectation Apple may field cameras inside the iPod touch (we don’t anticipate this until after Christmas), it seems strong iPhone sales are culprit.

With all those iPhones churning out, and now with distribution in China and through multiple carriers in formerly exclusive countries such as the UK, Apple execs are clearly working to high demand projections. Digitimes informs, “Tight supply is not expected to ease until late November 2009, the sources pointed out.

“Apple has increased fourth-quarter orders for the iPhone 3GS to its Taiwan-based manufacturing partners Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry) and Primax Electronics by 17-20%,” the report says.

Apple sold 7.4 million iPhones in its last quarter, representing seven percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Suggestions the company has raised manufacturing orders by up to 20 percent is bound to drive Wall Street’s number-crunchers to upwardly revise their current estimates for Q1 and FY2010 iPhone 3GS sales, as this could point to an additional 1.2-1.5 million sales over and beyond the c.6/7 million units consensus estimates that are being bandied around.

We’ll wait and see.

Metallica have teamed-up with Tapulous to offer an all-new title to fans, Tap Tap Revenge: Metallica ($4.99).

Confirming the news, the band said: "We’re hitting the Apple iPhone App store again, this time so that you can play games on your phone! With all of our kids wild about it, we thought it would be super cool if you could play Tap Tap Metallica style, so we hooked up with the fine folks over at Tapulous and guess what? Ten Met songs are now ready for you to attack . . . check it out for just $4.99 here.”

Tap Tap Revenge: Metallica is the first game in the Tap Tap Revenge series to include a Bluetooth-based Battles Mode where players challenge friends to a point-by-point battle where they can deploy bombs and other special objects to distract the opposition and come out victorious. Accompanying the Career Mode is a new fast-paced Arcade Mode where players are challenged with yet more bombs and other special objects that make the game that much more difficult.

When asked for a quote about the game, Lars Ulrich asked his eleven year old son, Myles, who said, "You haven’t lived ’till you’ve played this!"

Everyone who purchases Tap Tap Revenge: Metallica will be entered into a daily prize draw, with prizes including a trip to Las Vegas for Metallica’s show there on December 5, including airfare, hotel, tickets (duh!) and meet and greet passes.

Songs included in the game are:
• ‘Enter Sandman’
• ‘Sad But True’
• ‘King Nothing’
• ‘All Nightmare Long’
• ‘Some Kind of Monster’
• ‘Master of Puppets’
• ‘Seek & Destroy’
• ‘Fuel’
• ‘One’
• ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’

3 Game Modes:
Face off P2P in BLUETOOTH BATTLE MODE, and launch crazy new weapons like Ink Splatter, Tiny Tappers, and Fade To Black. There’s the solo ARCADE MODE, where your radar will warn you of incoming bombs, and you can earn shields and 16x points. Or CAREER MODE, where you rack up mad points, but with no attacks.

Also A Metallica feed displays band news, challenges, and public battles.

Get the game right here.

With Windows 7 out the breech and Snow Leopard already purring on many Macs, news that VMWare Fusion 3.0 ships today, October 27, is well-timed.

You may have missed the brilliant weekend deal which enabled you to pick up a copy of this sophisticated virtual machine software for just c.$27 this weekend…however, it is available now through Amazon in the US at $5 off book price, $74.99. (Steeper discount on a higher price in the UK, where you can pick up a copy for £58.99, as against the £68.46 book price).

We have been impressed by the speed and parity with which the virtualisation software runs guest OS’s on the Mac. The Unity engine is extremely stable (as far as we can tell), the integration between the OS’s impresses, and it opens your Mac up for Open GL and Directx support.

Better still, if you plan switching to Mac and have an old WIndows install disk, using the built-in Migration Assistant for Windows, VMware Fusion 3 can convert your entire PC and bring it over to your Mac in a few easy steps, giving you access to your Windows applications, documents and other files. Just install a simple application on your PC, connect it to your Mac with a cable or wirelessly, and VMware Fusion will guide you through the rest.

Additional features:
    •    VMware Fusion 3 provides the ultimate Windows experience on the Mac
    •    Optimized for Mac OS X Leopard and Snow Leopard
    •    64-bit native and advanced 3D graphics
    •    Windows 7 support including Windows Aero and Flip 3D animations
    •    Ultra-fast Migration Assistant for Windows to transfer your entire PC to your Mac wirelessly or using an Ethernet cable.

Oh, and it’s not just Windows, the software lets you run a host of guest OS’s, including multiple Linux distros.

Computerworld installed Psystar’s RebelEFI bootloader on two machines, one a PC Desktop and one a Fujitsu laptop/tablet.  Both worked as advertised but the final results left much to be desired.  The desktop PC was stuck at 1024×768 resolution and audio drivers didn’t work.   The Fujitsu laptop however was much worse off.

With the Fujitsu T5010, many key components did not work, including the integrated WiFi, tablet input, touch pad, integrated audio system and the fingerprint scanner. What’s more, the GMA 4500 graphics controller was only able to run at a resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels and not the system’s native resolution of 1366 x 768. I was unable to get any of those components working after the install, even after updating the drivers and the OS X operating system.

They recommend downloading the free installer first and making sure the PC is compatible before paying the $50 to activate the software.  Remember, Psystar’s software isn’t necessary to make a Hackintosh.  If you are really a cheap bastard, you may want to try Gizmodo’s $300 version instead.

http://www.hulu.com/embed/meTC1Cecckovq833QMGRow/610/1312

Microsoft has yanked its sponsorship of Fox’s upcoming Seth MacFarlane comedy/variety special.  Our only question is: Has Microsoft ever watched Family Guy?  What did they expect?

But that was before Microsoft execs attended the special’s taping on Oct. 16. The special included MacFarlane and Alex Borstein – the voice of "Family Guy" matriarch Lois – pitching Windows 7.  For most of the special, however, MacFarlane and Borstein made typical "Family Guy" style jokes, including riffs on deaf people, the Holocaust, feminine hygiene and incest.

Maybe Jerry Seinfeld is looking good again?

O RLY?. This report’s generating lots of coverage, we note – so we’d best chime in too….seems that Apple’s still unannounced, unconfirmed and currently undetailed purported tablet/slate thing needs to sell for $600 or less to appeal to the wide church of PC users, apparently. 

Retrevo tells us, “Apple’s going to have to be very aggressive on pricing if they want to win over PC owners.”   Uh huh?

Assuming Apple does intend taking on the netbook market with its tablet, the research warns: “The study also found Apple had better hurry up if they want to capture any of the netbook market because many consumers, both Mac and PC owners, have already bought a netbook and many more plan on buying one soon.”

“It’s also possible they’ll position it more as a mobile media player and computer and treat it more as a netbook to compete with all the other netbook vendors currently grabbing laptop market share. If they go the netbook route they will have some catching up to do. The Gadgetology study indicated that 37% of Mac owners already own or plan to buy a netbook this year. Even worse for Apple is the fact that Apple has already lost the early adopters like the 59% of the iPhone owners who responded to the survey saying they already own or plan to buy a netbook this year,” the report also informs.

We can understand the logic – as with the iPod and iPhone, Apple does eventually need to get its products into the hands of Windows users to grab mass market share. Price is important, but thinking back to the launch of previous products, we recognise Apple’s very good at bringing advanced products to first adopter audiences, who then do an equally good job showing everyone else how good (or, sometimes, bad) their new devices are.

However, in a recession-hit market, price is certainly going to be something Apple execs are considering. Perhap ad-supported applications and operating systems may help reduce costs?

The data for this report came from a study of online individuals conducted by an independent panel. The sample size was 753 distributed across gender, age, income and location in the US. The study sample emanates from the Retrevo price comparison site.
 

Verizon may be playing hardball with the advertising for the new Droid device, but that’s just business – not so deep down the company would still like to offer the iPhone, Verizon Communications CEO, Ivan Seidenberg, confirmed today.

Speaking up during the carrier’s Q3 financial call, he said the company would be interested in carrying the device, but that, “This is a decision that is exclusively in Apple’s court.”

He also said, “We obviously would be interested at any point in the future they thought it would make sense for them to have us as a partner. And so we will leave it with them on that score.”

Seidenberg observed that his company had to “sit back” and give them “credit” for success, stressing the network wants to offer as broad a choice of devices as it can, and that would include Apple’s iPhone.

In the background we were told last week that Apple is already testing some form of future iPhone-class device on Verizon’s 4G network. “Tests have been taking place for the last couple of months,” the report said.

Apple has side-stepped existing debate concerning whether all Americans should be given a chance at affordable health insurance – by extending full-benefit medical insurance to part-time employees starting from January 2010.

This may not seem a huge deal to UK readers, but in the US health insurance is essential, while the kind of salary part-time and unemployed citizens attracts means access to the insurance and non-welfare health care is denied to these groups.

IFOAppleStore (experts on matters in Apple retail), reports: “According to sources, the benefits now offered only to full-time employees, including those who work at the retail stores, will be offered to those working as few as 15 hours a week, which would include nearly all store employees.”

Principal caveat to the deal is that employees must have been with the company a year in order to qualify. All the same, with an estimated 9,900 part times in the Apple retail chain, the move seems set to cost Apple $80 million a year.

The move is understood to be in response to “significant dissatisfaction that emerged over the past year among part-time company employees,” the report informs. Health insurance – or the lack of it – was seen as contributing to that malaise. It could be seen as good business practice, particularly as Microsoft attempts to poach Apple retail employees.
 

Update: What – there is no frontside bus in Core i5/i7s? You don’t say!

We’re looking at Apple’s documentation to see if the new Core i5 iMacs have a faster frontside bus than current iMacs.  Apple’s tech specs page is as ambiguous as possible just putting a placeholder where the speed should be under the Core i5 and not even listing any specs for the Core i7 model.  Some Core i5 and i7 chips have 1333MHz bus speeds which would speed up the whole system significantly.  

The speed bump would also increase the speed of the RAM however, which isn’t indicated by the table.

This seems like a good idea.  Apple’s opening a Retail Store next year in Chicago near a run-down subway station at North and Clybourn.  Apple would like to spruce up the place in exchange for 4 million dollars in advertising money (which if Chicago is anything like NYC, is gonna happen anyway).    

A CTA spokeswoman confirmed that the transit authority is in talks with the computer and iPhone behemoth about a deal that could net the cash-strapped CTA as much as $4 million in funding from Apple to pay for an upgrade of the run-down subway station at North and Clybourn, which is adjacent to an Apple retail store now under construction and expected to open next year. In exchange for its millions, Apple would receive first dibs on any and all advertising that eventually goes up at the rehabbed subway stop, which would allow Apple to create what is known as a "station domination" advertising effect at the North and Clybourn station. 

The CTA spokesperson said the deal stopped short of letting the transit authority extend naming rights for the subway stop to Apple.  That might have been awesome.  "Next Stop, Apple!"

Outside the station:

Inside the Station

You know how easy it is to lose those SIM trays, right? Well, why not stock up on the next generation Apple iPhone 4G/iTablet SIM tray now before the excitement of actually buying one (or it being announced) happens.  ChinaOntrade.com now has them in stock and shows the part number below.  According to the catalog page, it differs from a garden variety iPhone SIM in that the extract hole is smaller, it has a metal frame and the outer frame is bigger.  Progress!  via Engadget

ALERT: Ignore previous records; ignore previous records – the iPhone this weekend achieved the new record of approving over 100,000 apps for sale through the App Store.

That’s another 15,000 applications since Apple last confirmed how many software titles it is making available through the store, and confirms the velocity with which developers are throwing titles at the company’s next-gen mobile devices.

As reported by AppShopper, there were 101,561 approved apps, though availability of these varies by territory and just 92,870 of them are currently available through the App Store.

Similar data from analytics firm, Mobclix, reveals 103,295 apps as having been released in the last year.

Just last month, Apple revealed that over two billion applications have now been downloaded from iTunes, with over 85,000 apps then available from the 125,000 developers signed-up to its Dev Programme.

“The rate of App Store downloads continues to accelerate with users downloading a staggering two billion apps in just over a year, including more than half a billion apps this quarter alone,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO at that time.

“The App Store has reinvented what you can do with a mobile handheld device, and our users are clearly loving it,” he added.

Indeed, the value of Apple’s platform extends way beyond its use to developers, with Volswagen recently making the brave and unusual move of launching a new vehicle in the US with a marketing campaign that begins exclusively with an iPhone app.

The free app, which is called "Real Racing GTI," puts players on the fictional Mayapan Beach racetrack, and is tied to a contest in which, the New York Times reports, registered players can win one of six limited-edition 2010 Volkswagen GTI’s (the new model).

Earlier in the year, Tim Ellis, VP-marketing at Volkswagen of America’s VW brand, said that car companies will be canceling conventional auto promotions as they “trim the fat” wherever they can while retaining “core media properties and launch budgets.”
 

Here’s the latest new device to appear in China’s fast-moving clone market, the P88 from Shenzhen Great Long Brother Industrial Co. Any similarity to any notion of the future Apple tablet is purely coincidental – after all, that product hasn’t even been announced, though it remains widely speculated upon.

Sure, we’re seeing this gadget’s running the latest and greatest version of Windows, XP, and we’re also aware that this device seems pretty thick for a future rumoured Apple product. (How thick is speculation, after all).

However, looking at the specs is kind of interesting, if only because if a small Chinese company can knock a gadget like this together, then just how much more sophisticated can a more innovative player (like Apple) get with its devices?

The P88 hosts a 10.2-inch 1,024-x-600 touch screen; uses an Intel Atom chip running at 1.6GHz; hosts 1GB memory and provides three USB ports, VGA, RJ-45, a card reader, headphone port and a microphone.

This is a connected device, too, with WiFi and spaces for 3G and GPS chips. Dimensions are 280-x-180-x-22mm.

What’s ugly? Well, it is HEAVY – it weighs a pocket-tearing 1.03Kg, and battery life is appalling – 1.5-hours. All this for around $440.

We reckon weight, battery life, price and, erm, Windows XP means this is a no win, at least in Western consumer markets, but we figured you’d like to see a picture of the kind of thing that’s possible using current standard components.

There’s a few more images over at Shanzai.com.

It invalidates warranties and flies against user agreements, but jailbreaking iPhones remains a technical challenge that appeals to the self-same sorts of technical problem-solving types who first hung out at the HomeBrew Computer Club or put together Black Box telephone jammers with help from Cap’n Crunch: so the news here is that hacker geohot, has just released a new version of Blackra1n, his 30-second jailbreak tool.

  Blackra1n RC2 now supports all device models, including the newer versions of the iPhone 3GS and iPod touch, says Cult of Mac. Among other things, it adds support for the new iPhone 3GS and the iPod touch 8GB.

There’s lots of bug fixes, but does not unlock the device, only offering jailbreaking. Oh, and the software works n Windows and Mac.

From geohot’s blog:

Update – RC2 is out
Fixed 3G issues;
Tethered jailbreak for 3.1 OOTB ipt 8GB and new 3GSes;
Fixed Icy issues;
Both Windows and Mac;
If you used RC1 with success, no need to rerun.

If you are curious to unlock or jailbreak your iPhone or iPod touch, please ensure you fully understand what you have to do and you are prepared to void your warranty or otherwise bear the consequences of what you’re doing.