9to5 Staff

From the Toys Section:

Amazon offers the refurbished TomTom One for $47.98 after $20 rebate+free shipping.  That’s the lowest total price we’ve ever seen for this GPS (or anything like it). Features include a 3.5" touch-screen LCD, voice guidance, optional 3D viewing, auto-rerouting, USB connectivity, and more.  The lowest non-rebate price we can find is $58 at Tiger Direct.

 

Here’s our rationale on this one.  TomTom will be releasing a car kit for iPhone sometime between now and the end of time.  The thing is, this car kit has a GPS and Gyroscopes in it.  Since it is for Apple customers, TomTom will gouge the price, which will probably bring it in at a higher price than the stand alone TomTom you see above.  Also, having a stand alone GPS means it doesn’t bug out when you get a call or get Push Facebook notification. 

Some interesting new features in Powerpoint 2010.  Some of them seem strangely familiar.  Via Scobelizer

http://www.viddler.com/player/101e8641/

The translations are a little sketchy but the ChinaTimes is basically saying that in October, Apple will launch a $800, 10-inch tablet.   Most of this information has been published before so it isn’t certain whether or not this is a rehash of that information or from new sources.  The biggest question at this point is which OSX will it run?  Will it be the Mac OS, the iPhone OS or some hybrid?  The iPod launches are usually in September so a iPod platform device would indicate some deviation.  Also, Apple’s tablet patents seem to indicate that they are working on a full MacOS tablet.

Foxconn, Wintek, Dynapack are all named as suppliers of parts.  Did we mention "EE-1044-IN-W5C"?

I think it will.  Read the long version at Computerworld.

 

The Guardian is reporting that Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt, is soon going to discuss his future (if there can be such a thing) on Apple’s board.  Schmidt, who is in Sun Valley, Idaho at a retreat with the world’s most powerful media executives, also mentioned that the conflicts of interests had not yet been discussed with Apple.

"I’ll talk to the Apple people," he told reporters on Thursday. "At the moment, there’s no issue."

The US Trade Commision is investigating possible conflicts alongside fellow Google/Apple Board member Arthur Levinson.

A further Reuters report also mentioned some other interesting tidbits including the relationship (both are Webkit based) between Safari and Chrome (the browser) and how Schmidt, as an Apple board member, kept close watch on Steve jobs during the liver transplant.

Schmidt said Chrome, which is based on open-source technology, worked with Apple’s Safari browser.

"There’s a very large collaboration with respect to Chrome and Safari," he said.

Schmidt also said he was kept well abreast of the circumstances surrounding Apple founder Steve Jobs’ medical leave of absence.

In January, Jobs began a nearly six-month leave to seek treatment for unspecified health issues. He received a liver transplant while on leave, and returned to work last week.

Apple and its board have been criticized by some observers for failing to disclose the exact state of Jobs’ health.

"I was extremely well-informed as a board member with what was going on with Steve," Schmidt said. He declined to comment further on the matter.

This follows an amuzing post by FakeSteve of basically the same message.  This one too.

 

We’ve been playing with Snow Leopard 10A402 for a few hours.  Here’s a running list of what we’ve found:

Significant snappieness™ all around.  Shut down takes 5 seconds.  Startup significantly faster as well.  This isn’t one of those "I think it is faster".  It is more like "Dayum!"

Exposé on multiple monitors is fixed.

Battery life says about 30% longer (no time to put into practice – yet)

In the Dock, you now get menus like right and below.

New version of Quicktime 10(42)…

 

It seems like these latest Expose features are bringing more and more touch features to the OS.  Do we really have to point to where this is going?

 

 

That is the biggest thing that has ever hit our software updater.

"This Snow Leopard Developer Preview Update is recommended for all users running the Snow Leopard Developer Preview Build 10A394 or later. This update includes general operating system fixes for stability, compatibility, and security."

Wow, just wow.  It seems like just yesterday U2 were singing the virtues of the iPod for Apple.  Now RIM throws a few bucks their way and they do pretty much the exact same thing (it looks like an Apple ad until the very end).  

The thing is: Is a Blackberry really an entertainment device?  Are you thinking rock and roll when you get a Blackberry?  OK…they want to change perceptions.  Did it work?

via Giz

Oh, as a commenter pointed out, Bono is a founding member of Apple’s favorite investment firm, Elevation Partners.  Though technically, he should be doing ads for the Pre and not Blackberry in that case.

Amazon has just released a new wireless portal, amazonwireless.com, where they try to simplify the process of buying a mobile device. 

They have signed up the two biggest US carriers, AT&T and Verizon, and have most of the devices that each carrier sells on their own website.  Tmobile and Sprint are said to be coming soon. 

However, one phone in particular is missing from the AT&T microsite: the iPhone.   Why?  Walmart and BestBuy sell the iPhone, why can’t Amazon? 

 

According to the WSJ, the Korean government has asked, and Apple has agreed, to recall some iPod nanos that might overheat.  The recall request was based on four complaints since Dec 2008 of the original iPod Nano.  Three of the complaints were due to battery meltdowns during recharging.  There are no details of the recall yet provided.

SEOUL (Dow Jones)–A South Korean government agency said Thursday that it has requested Apple Inc.’s Korea unit to recall some of its iPod nano music players on concerns that batteries in the device may overheat. In a statement, the Korean Agency for Technology and Standards said it had alerted the problems on June 25 to Apple Korea and suggested a voluntary recall in order to alleviate consumers’ concerns. "On July 7th, Apple sent a letter saying it will accept the recommendation made by the Korean Agency for Technology and Standards," the agency said. Apple spokeswoman Jill Tan declined to comment. The agency said that it received four complaints since December 2008 by users of the MP3 players, while three of those cases were related to battery meltdowns during the recharging process. 

Apple uses similar parts globally so one has to wonder if this will spread into an even larger recall.

Also, a recall based on four complaints for a whole country?  That seems a little bit rash to us.  But good on Apple for knocking that out.

Speaking of tiny screens, head over to pocket calculator pioneers, Casio, and feast your eyes on this rather lovably dramatic example of an incredibly high-res screen of a two-inch punch.

This thing of beauty is a 2.0-inch a-Si TFT (amorphous silicon thin-film transistor) color liquid crystal display with the industry’s highest resolution of 546 ppi (pixels per inch).

Gizmodo did a little thinking on that 546ppi to tell us,

Amazon dropped the price of a standard Kindle to $299 today hoping to spur sales of the popular device.  That’s down $60 from Amazon’s normal price which has held steady since the device was released two years ago.  It isn’t certain what made Amazon drop its price but we can hope that a possible Apple tablet coming down the pipe may have pushed Amazon to become more competitive in their pricing.  The Kindle App on the iPhone is still free btw.

 

Google’s huge announcement this evening that it will push an open source, instant-on OS which runs on both Intel/AMD and ARM platfoms will be an interesting developement for Apple users.  The new ChromeOS will make use of HTML5/CSS (like the Pre) which will allow applications for Chrome to also run on browsers (Chrome the best probably) on Mac, Windows and other variants of Linux.  Chrome now looks like it is more a platform (like Adobe Air) than a browser.

The Chrome OS aims to be a simple OS geared toward Netbook-type devices.  Google touts "Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS".  The OS won’t be officially released for at least a year, but the hype surrounding it will certainly make other OS vendors take notice.  The Netbook category is undeniably a huge space and Google hopes to get a foothold in it.

While it doesn’t seem to be in direct competiton to any of Apple’s current products, if Apple plans to release any products that fill the gap between the iPod Touch and the MacBook, there might be some overlap.  It still may be time to reconsider that board seat that Google CEO Eric Schmidt is holding.

 

We’d almost forgot about these…the Latest installment has a young couple looking for a sub $700 laptop.  Obviously, there is no Mac anywhere near that.  Notice when the baby cries.

http://images.video.msn.com/flash/soapbox1_1.swf

Microsoft might want to switch its attention to that pesky Google pretty soon.

 

Pinch Media tracks apps usage by iPods and iPhones.  In their data, they collect the model number of the iPod/iPhone being used and have been seeing more and more iPod touch 3,1’s running around.  This is what they had to say on the matter:

• the first time an application using Pinch Analytics was run by a ‘iPod3,1′ device occurred in late April 2009;
• applications using Pinch Analytics were run by ‘iPod 3,1′ devices very infrequently until late May 2009, when the pace picked up slightly;
• As of this date, a few dozen distinct ‘iPod 3,1′ devices have run around two dozen different applications using Pinch Analytics;
• The applications being run on ‘iPod 3,1′ devices have all been the larger, more popular applications using Pinch Analytics, with hundreds of thousands to millions of unique users– other than their size, the applications have little else in common.

Our biggest question at this point is on the quality of the camera.  Will it be as good as the current iPhone 3GS, or will it be a better, 5 megapixel CMOS sensor with a nice lens?  The placement of the camera to the center of the device would indicate that it is a different animal.

Via TUAW

 

From the 9to5mac Toys section:

 

TigerDirect.com offers the Hammer Storage MoreSpace 1TB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive, model no. HU1100-1000, for $89.99 with $7.49 for shipping ($0.09/GB). That’s $9 under our March mention and the lowest total price we’ve seen. It features a 3.5" drive and weighs just over 2 lbs.

 

 

Amazon.com offers the Patriot Duplicator 16GB Class 6 SDHC Secure Digital High-Capacity Card with Auto Backup, model no. PD16GSDHC6, for $36.97 with free shipping. This $15 mail-in rebate chops it to $21.97 ($1.37/GB). That’s $23 off and the lowest total price we could find. It features auto-backup software (for Windows only) which requires no installation. Rebate expires July 31.

Of note, although this card can be used as an ordinary 16GB SDHC card in Mac operating systems (including the new SDHC-equipped MacBook Pros), the auto-backup software works only in Windows.  On Leopard, you can simply use the built-in Time Machine. After you set options, the software automatically backs up data you have specified.

 

It isn’t just GMail.  Quicktime w/Perian alternative VideoLAN just came out of beta today.  VLC offers you a way to watch just about any video out there on the net.  It also allows you to watch DVDs without those pesky region coding as well as an important Handbrake helper for backing up your DVDs. 

Félicitations!

 

 

For those who want to make their little iPhone camera zoom a bit better and don’t mind turning your iPhone into a Goth appendage, you may want to take a gander at this import from Japan:

via Engadget

There are a few lens sizes to choose from.  With some skillz, you could even make a music video.

 

 

Look, we’re not in favor of getting the government involved in any of our gadgetry…but…well… they are already there (FCC allocates spectrum, etc.) so they might as well do something good.  John Kerry last month petitioned the FCC to look into wireless carrier/handset maker duopolies, with the Sprint/Pre and AT&T/iPhone specifically being named.  That petition looks to have some legs.

Now, the WSJ’s Amol Sharmais is reporting that the US department of Justice is also looking into the matter:

“Among the areas the Justice Department could explore is whether wireless carriers are hurting smaller competitors by locking up popular phones through exclusive agreements with handset makers, according to people familiar with the matter. In recent weeks lawmakers and regulators have raised questions about deals such as AT&T’s exclusive right to provide service for Apple Inc.’s popular iPhone in the U.S.”

We’re pretty sure Apple, in a purely capitalist market, would just love to let anyone on any carrier use the iPhone.  Just look at France where the iPhone is booming on all three major carriers after the Orange-iPhone excusivity was deemed unfair to competition.   

If the DOJ rules that carrier exclusivity is anti-competitive like France’s government did, Tmobile might get in on some of the iPhone McLovin…and we might get an iPhone that gets a signal in our neighborhood.

The DOJ is also reportedly looking into if Apple and Google sharing directors (Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Art Levinson) is a competitive advantage as well. 

You’re hard earned iPod money is going to be buying a lot of lawyer time over the next few years it appears.

Apple is gearing up to celebrate the first anniversary of the wildly popular, much-copied App Store.  July 11th is the date it was released in the 2.0 iPhone software update. Apple has issued their favorite apps and games to commemorate the occasion.

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=5068157&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=ffff00&fullscreen=1