9to5 Staff

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This is the new Lenovo IdeaPad U310 (and U410) as it appears in the Federal Communication Commission database. I always wonder if Lenovo during its design meetings pretends like it came up with this look, or if the boss just says, “Make me something that looks exactly like this MacBook Pro.”

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If you are wondering why your recent trip to the Apple Store left you loving Apple more than ever or wanting your customers to feel the same way about your company, we got the book for you.

“The Apple Experience” by veteran Apple/technology author Carmine Gallo deep dives into the Apple retail experience and breaks down exactly what it is that Apple retail employees are trained to do just to make a customer feel good about an experience (and want to come back). The 235-page book goes through every aspect of employee training and pours through countless hours of interviews with employees and shoppers on Apple’s five-step service: Approach, Probe, Present, Listen, and End.

Even if you do not own a retail business and just want to understand how Apple retail works, there is a lot here for you.

Gallo heeds his own advice by delivering a fun and incredibly insightful book that will help people understand the “magic” of the Apple retail experience.

The Apple Experience is at Amazon. The hardcover is $16.50, and the Kindle version is $9.99. When it hits the iBookstore, it will be available here.

An “Apple Experience” excerpt from “Chapter 10: Sell the Benefit” is below:
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Patently Apple did what it does and dug up a patent related to building 3D avatars:

Earlier today we introduced Apple’s 3D Avatar App which covered a basic overview of the new application in the works. Now a second patent application has surfaced and it actually shows that the app is already running on an iPad! We have the screenshot to prove it. The new patent application focuses on how the app will work with color palettes and more. The big news however is that the new 3D Avatar App is in its final stages of development and that’s very cool. Evidently phase-one of the application is geared for the younger crowd, but other editions could be in the works as discussed in our first report today.

This could be for GameCenter or a number of other areas where you would want to create an online personality.

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Some good deals from 9to5Toys.com today:

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If you like Kindle, no better time to jump on the refurb Kindle Fire for $139 + free shipping.  Like new with 1 year warranty.

MacConnection has the Airport Extreme Base Station ($30 off) for $149.  Best Buy has refurb for $99

Used iPhone 4 (no contract): $235 at Cowboom

Transcend 8GB Class 4 SDHC Memory Card for $5 + free shipping

iTunes library fixer upper Tuneup bundle is $30

Logitech Wireless Keyboard: $15 at Best Buy

Lots more at 9to5toys.com (Facebook) (Twitter)(RSS)(Subscribe via eMail)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sAbCJTcPws&context=C400dec6ADvjVQa1PpcFO6DGYpmn_yT6FydbMMuTkIdc7VzuOoj_4=]

On the Photoshop Blog, Adobe today said it passed 500,000 downloads with its free Photoshop CS6 Beta software.

• As soon as it was announced, Photoshop CS6 beta was a worldwide Trending Topic
• Our sneak peek video playlist on YouTube has received nearly 3 million views
• The Photoshop CS6 beta videos have already received half a million views

We rounded up the reviews the night it released, which were positive overall. Download Photoshop CS6 from Adobe Labs (just under 1 GB).

Oh, and Adobe also previews Illustrator CS6.

We are sure the Lumia 900 launch will be great for AT&T, but the carrier might be setting expectations a little high:

“At all levels, this is a notch above anything we’ve ever done,” AT&T device head Jeff Bradley said in an interview with CNET, noting that includes the launch of the iPhone.

Sure, Microsoft and AT&T will be throwing a lot of cash at this launch, and pricing their “Hero” device at $100 with plan certainly is aggressive, but does anyone really this launch will overshadow the 1 million-unit weekend of the iPhone 4S launch that AT&T itself said:
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From 9to5Toys.com:

Ending Saturday, StackSocial offers the $30 The TuneUp Bundle which offers to “Cleanup your iTunes Music Collection. Automagically.” The TuneUp Bundle (Lifetime License) includes:

• Clean — Accurately fixes mislabeled or missing song information (like “Track 01” or “Unknown Artist”) using cutting-edge waveform recognition

• Cover Art — Scans your entire music collection in seconds and automagically™ fills in missing album artwork

• DeDuper— Intelligently finds and removes duplicate music files from your music library using waveform recognition

• Tuniverse — Delivers music videos, artist bios, concert alerts, social network integration and more

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjgeG_fbxus&feature=youtu.be&hd=1]

Ending today, MacUpdate has one of the best bundles we have ever seen on a wide-ranging set of Mac software. You are breaking even with the VMware Fusion 4 headliner, but there are great apps up and down the lineup including Drive Genius disk utility, PDFPen 5 PDF editor, Snapheal photo editing, Forklift FTP/Finder Utility, Typinator 5. These are all great apps….
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[slideshow]

MOG is a Spotify-like service that streams 14 million songs to your devices and allows you to download music for offline viewing. The free version allows you to stream music against advertising. Meanwhile, the $4.99 version allows you to not only listen to ad-free music but also download music. The $9.99/month version allows unlimited downloads on mobile devices. Today, MOG added one new big device to its list: The iPad.

The iPad version (not universal?) hit the App Store today joining the earlier iPhone version. Perhaps, if you like your music on a native iPad-sized app, it is time to move to MOG (14-day free trial here with unlimited downloads).

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(Screenshot of The Lorax from Trailers App – Click to enlarge to full size)

Apple updated its Movie Trailers.app today to Retina graphics, which you will immediately notice bring videos to a higher 1080P quality.

iTunes Move Trailers 1.1 is now designed for the spectacular Retina display on the all-new iPad.

This would have been a good app to showcase when launching the Retina display. Either way, the video quality is impressive to the point that it makes the app addictive.

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Apple is unlikely to ever do such a thing (among other things, it would kill its pricing matrix), but sometimes I wish my iPhone or iPad had a built-in MicroSD card slot for easy access to lots of cheap storage. The 16GB cards routinely sell for $10 and new cards go as high as 64GB. However, it is not just about the storage being inexpensive and extremely portable. The SD cards easily swap with Macs, PCs, Cameras, photo frames, video players, Blu-ray players, and other phones.

You can currently connect MicroSD cards with the unwieldy iPad Apple Digital AV Adapter (this) and a Micro to SD Card adapter, but what say you? Should Apple build a MicroSD card slot into upcoming iOS devices?

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pE-D2RtagHU]

This is an interesting little paragraph from Wired’s profile of Linus Torvalds, the founder of Open Source Linux OS:

Torvalds has never met Bill Gates, but around 2000, when he was still working at Transmeta, he met Steve Jobs. Jobs invited him to Apple’s Cupertino campus and tried to hire him. “Unix for the biggest user base: that was the pitch,” says Torvalds. The condition: He’d have to drop Linux development. “He wanted me to work at Apple doing non-Linux things,” he said. That was a non-starter for Torvalds. Besides, he hated Mac OS’s Mach kernel.

Linux is now the core of many operating systems, such as Android, Chrome WebOS, and a few others. If Apple hired Torvalds in 2000, Linux might not have made it to 2012.

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From 9to5Toys.com:

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Best Buy takes 20% off select iTunes eGift Cards, as listed below. At up to $20 off, each is tied with our mention from early February and at or near the lowest price we’ve ever seen. Note that international US iTunes users are eligible to purchase because the gift cards will be emailed for redemption. iTunes gift cards are good for Mac Apps, iOS Apps, iTunes Music, Videos, iBooks and more.

The deals:

• $15 iTunes eGift Card for $12
• $25 iTunes eGift Card (pictured) for $20
• $50 iTunes eGift Card for $40
• $100 iTunes eGift Card for $80

Bonus: Get a $10 Amazon gift card for $5 at Amazon.
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Late last year, the New York Times did a great interactive feature on the 323 Patents that Steve Jobs was granted as CEO of Apple.

From Patently Apple today:

Today, the US Patent and Trademark Office granted Apple a design patent for their flagship Shanghai Apple Store which opened its doors in September 2010. One of the designers credited for this incredible architecture is the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs.

He keeps racking them up…
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=FX-My424O7g]

We first profiled the Western Digital MyBook Thunderbolt Duo at CES in January and noted the extraordinary speed of the drives, especially when daisy chained (above find 780MB/s read, 600+MB/s write). Today, Macrumors notes that Western Digital is making the drives available for $599 (4TB) and $699 (6TB).  While those prices are steep, they fall in line with new Thunderbolt parts across the line.

We’ve reviewed the much slower Firewire/USB Western Digital Studio 6TB drives and came away impressed. Those retail for around $430 currently ($270 less than the Thunderbolt version) but use energy efficient (read: slower) internal drives and slower Firewire 800 connectivity options.

Notably B&H Photo and Video is selling the Western Digital MyBook Thunderbolt Duo already with $50 discounts (6TB – $649, 4TB- $549) and tax only in New York but without solid shipping dates.
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iUvuaChDEg]

According to Above the Law, the original iPhone jailbreaker, Geohot, was arrested for felony possession of marijuana while at an international border crossing on his way to SXSW. According to the report, the arresting border patrol officers may have been outside of their jurisdiction (and likely measured improperly).

[tweet https://twitter.com/stroughtonsmith/status/180262261535940610]

Before you rush to judge the guy, remember Steve Jobs’ thoughts on mind-altering substances (and phone hacking). If you have jailbroken using any of the “xxxRain” jailbreaking tools, you have used Geohot’s work. He also recently worked at both Google and Facebook (and Lady Gaga’s BackPlane).

He was still able to give his talk at SXSW, which is a pretty interesting (mp3). The full description is below:

Here is something that falls squarely in the “like” category (for $70):

The ultimate iPhone case has just been reborn. Taking you back to the days of Military Photographers and their Leica rangefinders, the iCA Military Edition has arrived in solid black.

Transform your iPhone 4/s into a classic photojournalist’s rangefinder complete with viewfinder and top mounted shutter button. Attach the available wide, macro or fisheye lenses to create incredible effects unavailable in the iPhone by itself.

Step back in time to the days of classically proportioned cameras that fit your hand like a glove, and do it all with one product : the Gizmon iCA Military Edition.

Constructed of 23 Durable Polycarbonate pieces, the Military iCA wraps itself around your iPhone completely, creating an entirely new Camera. The iCA blurs the line between phone and camera by combining them both.

A detachable tripod mount is great for longer exposures and the soft fabric bag will protect the Camera when not in use.

It also comes in the less-awesome silver-trimmed orange, white or black for $5 less.
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=098wGRRCnOU]

Love this idea for controlling your Mac – especially for applications which don’t require you to be near your computer.  Apple has lots of patents on 3D gestures so it wouldn’t be absurd to see some of this at the OS level in the not-so-distant future.

Download here
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From 9to5Toys.com:

Today only, Amazon offers the Kensington KeyFolio Pro  Wireless Bluetooth Keyboard for $39.99 with free shipping.  That’s 60% off of list and the lowest price we could find for this 4-star rated keyboard for iPad 2. It offers both landscape and portrait use.

This will likely also work with Apple’s new 3rd Generation iPad as well (though Bluetooth 4.0 Keyboards could start showing up soon)

We haven’t tested this model but we’re fans of the similar Zagg Keyfolio keyboard case, although it is over double the price. 
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The Wall Street Journal reports that the United States Justice Department threatened to launch an antitrust lawsuit against Apple and five of the nation’s biggest book publishers over an alleged price-fixing that has resulted in higher prices of e-books.

Several of the parties have held talks to settle the antitrust case and head off a potentially damaging court battle. If successful, such a settlement could have wide-ranging repercussions for the industry, potentially leading to cheaper e-books for consumers. However, not every publisher is in settlement discussions.

The government is specifically aiming to probe CBS Corp.’s Simon & Schuster Inc., Lagardere SCA’s Hachette Book Group, Pearson PLC’s Penguin Group (USA), Macmillan, a unit of Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck GmbH, and HarperCollins Publishers Inc., a unit of News Corp. that also owns The Wall Street Journal.

At question: The so-called agency model where publishers freely set prices of their titles on Apple’s iBookstore before the Cupertino company reaps 30 percent of the proceeds. The freedom to pick the price has led most—if not all— publishers to allegedly raise prices of e-books across the board as they feared customers would get accustomed to inexpensive $9.99 Kindle books from Amazon.

Barnes & Noble CEO William Lynch already gave a deposition to the U.S. Justice Department. He said abandoning the agency model would allow a single party to achieve dominance in the marketplace, alluding to Amazon. According to the people familiar with the matter, the U.S. Justice Department believes that Apple and the publishers “acted in concert to raise prices across the industry, and is prepared to sue them for violating federal antitrust laws.”

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Apple said today at the new iPad unveiling that the device runs iOS 5.1, which is an unreleased version of its mobile operating system featuring Siri in Japanese, several camera app tweaks, and other little nice-to-haves. Interesting, this update also “addresses bugs affecting battery life.” Other features include new podcast controls for playback speed on iPad, the redesigned camera app on iPads, the always-visible camera shortcut on the lock screen, updated AT&T network indicator, Genius Mixes and Genius playlist for iTunes Match subscribers and more. We are guessing iCloud users will appreciate that they can finally remove photos from their Photo Stream directly on the device without having to go to iCloud.com on their computer.

Depending on your location, the update might not have hit iTunes, but you can always download the right firmware for your device using direct links here. Of course, you can also bring your device up to date over-the-air by hitting Software Update under the General section of the Settings app.

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Wow, that was fast. Hit this link!

UPDATE 1: Aw, snap! Although the page to this link advertises the March 7 Apple Special Event, the clip streamed is from a previous event. In addition, the page is not linked to the Apple Events section of Apple’s website. Either these things take time to propagate…or someone is having their last day at Apple, Inc.

UPDATE 2: The event stream is live now.

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