9to5 Staff

Macbidouille is reporting that iPod Nanos and Touch will receive cameras during their traditional fall updates.  It isn’t hard to see how the iPod Touch will receive the iPhone’s camera, iPod Touches have been slowly catching up to the iPhone’s functionality, getting Bluetooth, speakers, and mic-in. It should also get the new iPhone OS’s video producing capabilities, which will be a real differentiator against new products like the ZuneHD.  The iPod touch camera will likely be the same 3.2 megapixel model expected in the new iPhone.

They also note that the Nano will get a camera in September.  This would be a more interesting proposition because the Nano OS doesn’t have as many capabilities as that of the Touch.  It is also so small that the quality of the experience would be questionable.

Finally, they mention that the June 2009 iPhones will retain the same form factor as the current iPhones.

New iPods were released on September 9th 2008 and Apple is widely belived to now be on a yearly release schedule with its major products.  (the image is a Chinese knockoff btw)

This one makes us sleepy.

Guess they missed the $999 white MacBook which would have competed very well with the Dell.

We heard about this one a few months ago but it seems like it has finally hit the app store. Great idea for insurance companies and at the same time gives yet another reason to own an iPhone.

The flashlight function is a gimmick but starting a claim right from your device seems very cool.

Features:
* Calls emergency services
* Helps connect Nationwide customers with towing
* Helps you collect and exchange accident info
* Stores your insurance info for easy lookup
* Helps Nationwide customers start the claims process
* Locates Nationwide agents near you
* Takes accident photos and lets you record details
* Handy flashlight function for rainy nights or anytime

Sure, it could be nothing, and probably is.  But what if all of these drastic changes we are seeing in Intel Atom-based Hackintoshes on 10.5.7 mean something about upcoming Apple hardware?  Some points to consider:

• 10.5.1 – 10.5.6 there were little to no changes in Hackintoshes beyond what was stated in the update
• 10.5.7 updates bricked many Hackintoshes (it even gave a lot of real Macs some issues)
• For those able to update without issue, some MSI users are reporting that battey life has been improved drastically
• If some new Mac kit is released next month at WWDC, it will likely be running 10.5.7.

Why would battery management improve so much on these MSI Netbooks on the 10.5.7 update?  Is there some Atom Mobo software optimizations?  Perhaps the hardware matches up with some Apple Stuff on the way?

Apple’s own Macs aren’t seeing similar battery benefits.

According to Cult of Mac‘s Leander Kahney, a hacker by the name of “orin0co” had phished Steve Jobs’ Amazon password using a fake Amazon page awhile ago and has been pulling data out of it for the last few years.  He’s recently been sending out screenshots to journalists saying the highest bidder will get the pharmed information.  He/she claims that the purchasing record includes 20,000 items over the last 10 years.  Who says no one reads anymore?!

If true, this could be quite a crime.  However, a screenshot and an email aren’t really enough to believe this person yet.  You could just change your name to "Steve Jobs" in Amazon’s settings, take some screenshots and wammo!  Look!  We got Barack Obama’s Amazon account!! 

Maybe Leander is the one being phished. We’ll keep an eye on how/if this develops.

The email is pasted below:

Hi,
The reason am writing to you is that your book is among first to
sell in amazon:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/steve-jobs-Books/s?ie=UTF8&keywords=Steve%20Jobs&rh=n%3A266239%2Ck%3ASteve%20Jobs&page=1

I will try to be as short as possible:

2 years ago, I set a amazon.com fake page, and sent emails to different IT people around the globe. Among some other unknown person, Steve Jobs got my mail, he didn’t notice the scam I set so he “updated” his amazon account with data( name, address, credit card number, phone, amazon user and password) which I received, sent to my mail.

Now, it was not my intention to misuse his account (which is still untouched!), the sole purpose was if the “scam” was so perfect that even IT Guru’s will fall on it.

I saw you are the bestseller with a book on S.Jobs, I still have access on his amazon.com account, with all his purchase/interest details for 6-7 years. Now I just checked again, and he didn’t use it since December 22 last year, for reasons known to us.

I intent to sell this information, that’s why I picked you as first on the list.

If you are not interested, am sure other book authors on SJ life (Jeffrey Young, William Simon, Alan Deutschman, Anthony Imbimbo, Daniel Lyons or any others) will be very interested to know about this.

Hope to hear from you,

Regards

p.s. I can provide “print screens” logged in SJ amazon account.

Ivan Krsti? , the former security architect for the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project is now working for Apple according to a post on his blog today. 

…I have — at long last — found my new adventure. After a great deal of deliberation, I moved to California and joined the local fruit vendor. Today was my first day on the job, and I couldn’t be more thrilled.

Krsti? is known for his work on Bitfrost, an application that sequesters every program on the computer in a separate virtual operating system, preventing any program from damaging the computer, stealing files, or spying on the user.  He’s coming off of a year of work at MIT and other research projects.

I spent much of the last year devoted to my own research. I spun down various commitments, and took up a few others: I joined the advisory board for the Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization, became a member of the technical working group for Harvard Berkman’s StopBadware, and joined the Security Response Team for Python, my programming language of choice.

His role at Apple is, as of yet, uncertain.  However, it isn’t hard to see him working in a possible netbook group, in OSX security or even with education and emerging markets sales.  He’s also looking to buy a vowel for his last name.

Update: He’s working in Core Security according to the about me page (thanks commenter).

"I work on core security for a California fruit vendor."

We’ve had a good 10.5.7 update experience (loads of snappiness™!) on our machines but the Internet is filling up with issues related to the massive install.  MaxFixit goes over the major problems and the workarounds as per usual.

A good rule of thumb on this one is run a permissions repair before upgrading… and the Combo updater seems a little safer.

For Blue Screens:

• Don’t use Software Update. Instead, download the standalone "Combo" updater.
• Reboot into Safe Mode.
• Run Disk Utility and perform a Permissions fix and hard drive repair.
• Run the updater.
• Immediately repair permissions again.

Screen resolution issues – hit the PRAM a few times.

General wackiness:

• Boot into Safe Mode and run a permissions fix with Disk Utility.
• Reset the PRAM.
• Reinstall the update using the downloadable "combo" update (not any other), and following the "safe" method of installation mentioned above.

The desire to chime in with "everything went fine with mine!" is strong.  Resist.

For those expecting an early comeback from Steve Jobs, you probably will have to wait until late June.  Phil Schiller and others will be giving this year’s Keynote according today’s Apple press release.

Apple® will kick off its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with a keynote address on Monday, June 8 at 10:00 a.m. A team of Apple executives, led by Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, will deliver the keynote. WWDC will offer in-depth sessions on both iPhone™ OS 3.0, the world’s most advanced mobile operating system, and Mac OS® X Snow Leopard™, an even more powerful and refined version of the world’s best desktop operating system and the foundation for future Mac® innovation.

More importantly, we’ll see a developer preview of Snow Leopard on June 8th which will let developers "see the incredible progress we’ve made on Snow Leopard and work with us as we move toward its final release.”

Snow Leopard and Mac technical sessions will showcase hundreds of refinements to the operating system and dive deep into its new technologies including a 64-bit architecture, QuickTime® X, next-generation multicore and GPU processor support, and amazing new accessibility technologies. iPhone OS 3.0 technical sessions will cover introductory and advanced concepts to help developers get the most out of the iPhone OS 3.0 SDK and over 1,000 new APIs available for iPhone OS 3.0.

WWDC also offers attendees the unique opportunity to work side-by-side with Apple engineers to solve code-level issues, gain insight into development techniques and get expert advice on interface design.

Other activities at Apple’s WWDC 2009 include:

• more than 100 technical sessions presented by Apple engineers on a wide range of technology-specific topics for developing, deploying and integrating iPhone OS 3.0 and Mac OS X technologies;
• over 1,000 Apple engineers presenting the latest in Apple technologies and providing one-to-one direction in hands-on labs; and
• the opportunity to connect with thousands of fellow iPhone and Mac developers from around the world.

 Jobs has some demolition work to do but is still scheduled to be back to release new iPhones in late June.

After all the hoopla, the Slingplayer is now available at the iTunes Store.

At $29.99, it represents a pretty serious commitment, but for many, having their television wherever they are (with WiFi) will be a small cost. 

Also, Jailbreakers note that it should be easy to make a workaround on this that allows Slingplayer to run on 3G networks just like Skype and other VOIP applications do. 

Update: We have confirmation that the jailbroken VoIPOver3G.app also allows SlingOver3G.

Download Slingplayer now [iTunes Store Link]

From the Toys section:

You may have heard of a certain app that is finally available on the iPhone.  Well, if you aren’t rockin’ a Slingbox and want to have video on your television shot across the internets onto your iPhone, you’ll need to buy a little hardware. On the high end, you have the Sling Media Slingbox PRO-HD SB300-100 which slings HD content.  It just so happens that Amazon has this on sale for $240, 20% off of list.

On the lower cost side, Amazon has the Slingbox SOLO for $148, also marked down significantly.  Both of these Slingboxes are officially approved by Sling to work on the iPhone and iPod touch.

From the Manufacturer

Meet the Slingbox PRO-HD, the First Ever HD Streaming Slingbox.

With a set of Standard Definition (SD) and High Definition (HD) inputs and a built-in digital HDTV tuner, you can truly watch all of your TV anywhere. The built-in TV tuner also allows you to watch your local analog/digital broadcast or basic cable without changing channels on your home TV. Slingbox PRO-HD unleashes the latest hardware advancements to deliver the best video streaming quality of any Slingbox to date, for both local and remote viewing. And you can use the Slingbox PRO-HD with virtually any audio/video device such as an HD-DVR, satellite receiver, cable box, or security camera.

On Screen Remote Control Every feature that’s available on your TV remote control is accessible through the included SlingPlayer software for your Windows or Mac laptop. This means you can view your electronic program guide (EPG) (Windows only) and change the channels, queue a recording on your DVR, or even watch pay-per-view movies.

Full Set of Pass-Through Connections
Easy integration for up to three A/V devices. Includes component, composite, S-video, and ATSC connectors.

 

Additional Features

• No monthly fees.
• Watch your HDTV anywhere on your laptop or mobile phone.
• Watch and control a high-definition and a standard definition A/V device, such as a DVR, cable set top box, satellite receiver, or DVD players, plus your basic cable program content with the built-in HDTV tuner.
• Mobile phone compatibility. SlingPlayer Mobile* software lets you watch and control your TV and all of its programming on compatible Windows Mobile, Symbian, or Palm OS mobile phones.
• Crisp video streaming. SlingStream is the innovative streaming technology that ensures you receive the clearest picture possible at any given location.
• Supports over 5,000 A/V devices.
• Broadband Internet connection with router required.
• Supports Windows XP/Vista, Mac, and Windows Mobile, Symbian or Palm OS-based smart phones.

*Separate download required.

Apple released two more less "controversial" ads as well, below.

This probably won’t come as a surprise to anyone but AT&T has told Engadget that the crippling of the new Slingbox software was due to AT&T’s licensing terms.  What terms?  The terms they changed barely a month ago.

AT&T’s statement, below:

"Slingbox, which would use large amounts of wireless network capacity, could create congestion and potentially prevent other customers from using the network. The application does not run on our 3G wireless network. Applications like this, which redirect a TV signal to a personal computer, are specifically prohibited under our [brand new]terms of service. We consider smartphones like the iPhone to be personal computers in that they have the same hardware and software attributes as PCs.

That said, we don’t restrict users from going to a Web site that lets them view videos. But what our terms and conditions prohibit is the transferring, or slinging, of a TV signal to their personal computer or smartphone.

The Slingbox application for the iPhone runs on WiFi. That’s good news for AT&T’s iPhone 3G customers, who get free WiFi access at our 20,000 owned and operated hot spots in the U.S., including Starbucks, McDonalds, Barnes & Noble, hotels, and airports. AT&T is the industry leader in WiFi."

According to PublicKnowledge, AT&T changed its terms for computers, not phones, to prohibit the use of streaming media like Sling.  According to the statement, AT&T circumvents this because it considers the iPhone to be a computer.  All other smartphones which currently run Slingplayer apparently don’t make this grade.

Bolded was added to AT&T’s computer 3G terms on March 31st:

This means, by way of example only, that checking email, surfing the Internet, downloading legally acquired songs, and/or visiting corporate intranets is permitted, but downloading movies using P2P file sharing services, customer initiated redirection of television or other video or audio signals via any technology from a fixed location to a mobile device, web broadcasting, and/or for the operation of servers, telemetry devices and/or Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition devices is prohibited.

This addendum to AT&T’s terms, which was added after most iPhone users subscribed/agreed to a phone plan is what gives them the right to block Sling traffic over 3G.  The question that must be asked: Why single out the iPhone? BlackBerry, Symbian, WindowsMobile, and Palm all have Slingplayers that work over 3G. 

It is all really moot because Apple has final say on what can and can’t go into the App Store.  AT&T asked Apple not to let the app in as a 3G streaming app.  Apple probably got better pricing or some sort of other concession in return.  End of story.

 You’ve been hearing about it for months.  Now go download it…

Word on the street is that the much-anticipated Slingplayer.app will be hitting the App Store…any…minute…now.  This follows numerous setbacks and reported rejections.   The app will cost a hefty $29.99 and will unofficially work with all Slingplayers.  This contradicts Sling’s own website which said it would only work for newer models.

Additionally, the app will only work over Wifi, which eliminates much of the utility of having a Slingbox in your pocket.  Sling had originally said that their app would work over Wifi, 3G and even EDGE.  No doubt, AT&T and other carriers had a hand in this decision.

We’ll post the app link when it becomes available, for those of you with $30 burning a hole in your pocket.

Some chatty character on Microsoft’s Office 2010 Twitter account is espousing some pretty big words.  The account seems legit because it is linked to directly from Microsoft’s site.

• He/she is implying that a Zune Phone will be released close to Apple’s new iPhone and the Palm Pre in June
• Says that Office 2010 will be "available" to Mac Users.  Does that mean VM Available?  AVMailable™
• Facebook and Twitter baked right into Word?  Ugh.  That doesn’t seem necessary does it?
  

Any thoughts on this out there?

Update: Microsoft couldn’t confirm or deny the rumor.

Via Giz

If you don’t mind a few bugs, lack of Flash and a lot of speed, you may want to give the new Google Chrome (Chromium) builds a try.  The repository is being updated almost hourly.

First impressions:

• It doesn’t come with Flash but Flash can be installed and will be in future versions
• It is really fast.  Even with several tabs going, it is Safari 4 type fast.
• Each tab is a seperate process (see below).  Each one takes 1GB of Virtual Memory but less than 100MB of real RAM.
• It doesn’t run 64-Bit in Snow Leopard yet, only 32-Bit.  It also doesn’t run on PowerPC, the first Mac browser not to do so.
• Ironically, it tripped up on GMail (with several Labs features enabled) which Firefox and Safari handle just fine
• I’m doing this post in Chromium…and spel chek doesn’t work.  Neither do file uploads

Google is ramping up the publicity of the browser by airing several TV spots which it hopes will spread awareness of the browser.  

The Chrome browser is based on the same Webkit platform that Safari, Symbian’s browser and Adobe’s Air are based on.  Firefox has responded to Chrome by making tabs their own processes in upcoming builds.  Many people think that Safari 4’s tab layout is inspired by Chrome as well.

The browser wars certainly seem to be back on.

A Chinese forum poster has laid out (hilarious Google-English translation) the next generation iPhone almost exactly as described in recent rumors. Faster processor, 32GB Flash storage, 3 Megapixel camera with focus, digital compass and FM radio all make the cut.  He (she?) even gets extra credit for reciting the 9.7 inch tablet rumor as well.

The image which is shown shows "AT&T3.5" (without the space between the "T" and the "3") all the way over in China – rather than local Unicom or China Mobile.  The 3.0 iPhone software shows "AT&T 3.5"

Also, we’re not sure Apple are the FM radio types, even though we’ve seen that present and future iPhone chips do have the capability to do FM radio.

We like to think there are going to be some surprises both in design (thinner?) and functionality (front facing camera?).  If not, it will be hard to upsell current iPhone 3G users with a slightly better camera and compass.

For a rundown of all of the latest leaks and rumors on the iPhone 3, check here.

Amazon today released their new iPhone Kindle Store Application.  The App seems to circumvent Apple’s 30% cut of the store proceeds by making the purchase through a Web browser interface and having the purchase be delivered on the backend directly to Amazon’s App.  Will Apple let this stand?  Will other large product and service distributors follow suit?

An interesting alternative for publishers and authors who want to be on the iPhone is the Iceberg Reader by Scrollmotion.  This company takes a digital book and makes an application out of it.  At the end of the process the publisher pays about the same amount to get a book on the App Store, but pays Scrollmotion and Apple instead of Amazon.  Since each book is its own app, the authors have more flexibility in producing the book.app as well as in pricing and updating.

It will be interesting to see how Apple responds to the book apps situation.  Steve Jobs famously said that people don’t read anymore, that’s why Apple won’t build an eBook reader.

iLounge is reporting that Apple has rejected a Bittorent client controller app for the iPhone.  On the surface, it seems like a pretty standard move for Apple, who have a reputation for guarding digital rights. 

After an initial email stating that Drivetrain required “unexpected additional time for review,” Maza then received a rejection email from Apple, stating that “this category of applications is often used for the purpose of infringing third party rights. We have chosen to not publish this type of application to the App Store.”

Obviously, there is a lot of gray area swathed away with this rejection letter.  The app is perfectly legitimate and could easily be used for legal downloads.  The defensive argument could be made that apps like Safari could also be used for illegal downloads.  If there was a Web control panel for Transmission, Safari could even control the Bittorrent client.  Just because an application can be used to infringe doesn’t mean that it is.

We aren’t idiots here.  We know that 95% of Bittorrent traffic is illegal copyrighted material.  Apple would like to show its content partners that it is serious about reducing piracy.  Apple also sells a lot of the software commonly found on Bittorrent clients and might want to eliminate a route to pirating. 

Not that it will work of course.

Last week we heard AT&T might be charging less for iPhone usage.  Today, the Wall Street Journal is saying that AT&T should charge more for data hungry iPhones.  iPhone users use the web much more than any other smartphone’s users (except Android?) and according to comScore, web usage is much more data intensive than other network tasks like email or chatting.

The 3.0 version of the software will only increase usage because of the push notifications.

Users of iPhone download games, video and other Web data at two to four times the rate of other smartphone users, according to comScore. Yet AT&T charges iPhone subscribers the same fee of $30 a month for data that it levies on other smartphone customers. And aside from restricting certain activities, like file sharing, AT&T doesn’t limit how much data can be downloaded.

But Web applications popular with iPhone customers are bandwidth hogs. A recent analysis by Alcatel-Lucent of North American wireless network use during the midday hour on one day found Web browsing was consuming 32% of data-related airtime but 69% of bandwidth, while email used 30% of data airtime but only 4% of bandwidth. Email taxes network resources but in a different way.

As the proportion of customers with iPhones grows — 5.9 million 3G iPhones were activated in the last three quarters, 7.5% of AT&T’s total subscribers — the resulting growth in downloading and Web browsing will strain AT&T’s network. AT&T will need to add cell towers and spend more on the back-haul lines that connect the towers to the rest of the network.

Because of this increased cost, the WSJ thinks the carriers should go away from unlimited bandwidth.

In the short term, carriers should abandon unlimited data pricing plans. Both AT&T and Verizon Wireless already charge extra for heavy users with wirelessly connected laptops. They will have to contemplate similar strategies for smartphone users.

Bad idea.  One of the best features about the iPhone (and other smartphones for that matter) is that you don’t have to count your packets in and out.  There is know worry in the back of your mind about what your bill is going to look like.   Changing a huge part of the iPhone model could have adverse affects on the whole ecosystem.

We also think their model might be too simplified.  First of all, the cost of extra packets to AT&T isn’t directly proportional to data plan cost.  Once the infrastructure is in, ramping up data throughput is much much cheaper than putting in new towers.  Also, the price of the equipment is coming down as well as the cost of bandwidth.

This doesn’t mean that AT&T isn’t planning something like this, perhaps that is why we are hearing all of this Verizon chatter.

Citrix (via MacRumors) demonstrated a new version of its Virtualization software for the Mac Platform this week.  As a background, Citrix has had Windows client software for the Macintosh since OS9 which allows you to login to a Windows box somewhat like VNC.  They’ve also built an iPhone client for this functionality which we covered last year.

This new virtual machine software they’ve produced for the Mac is much like VMWare Fusion or Parallels in functionality but operates on a lower level, letting the Windows partition have native access to hardware like the 3D card, thereby theoretically giving you Boot Camp performance in a virtual machine.  Citrix is enterprise player so they haven’t really explored the usage for gaming.

There is a quick demo below.  You’ll want to head to the 42:30 marker for the "One More Thing".

http://www.citrix.com/tv/s/tv/players/ctv_viral_1_0.swf?ctv=423&autoStart=false&height=412&width=486

This is also interesting because it makes a virtual machine out of the MacOS called "Type 1 hypervisor".  While initially you might consider that only MacOSX Server is allowed to be virtualized, Citrix is able to circumvent this restriction by running the virtualized MacOSX on Apple Hardware.  IT still seems like a gray area to us.  We’ll see how/if Apple responds.

Interestingly, you could theoretically use this software as another way to run MacOS on PC Hardware.