Tech Industry

Update – delayed until March 6th

We’ve gotten reports as well as TUAW that there will be an Apple event tentatively scheduled for February 26th.  The event will likely be the launch pad for the iPhone/iPod touch SDK and applications including Exchange support and Lotus Notes support.

The date was likely finalized recently as Apple, who usually announces some new products at NAB, pulled out of the early April event for the first time in recent memory.  Perhaps Apple is saving its Final Cut Pro Server announcment for the February event – or more likely, as we’ve heard, pushed it back to mid-year.

It could also be the launch pad for the new MacBook Pros which have been waiting for the late-to-the-party Penryn chips.  Since 10.5.2 builds  have been lingering around for awhile now, it might also might also hit around then. 

Did we forget anything?

The XBox Media Center (XBMC) project was started as an alternative OS for the original modded XBoxes in 2002.  It has since grown into one of the most functional media center applications out there.

Last year it was ported to Linux and it was reborn as one of the best media centers for the platform, doing many things that Front Row/AppleTV and Windows Media center can’t do. 

Recently a team of programmers led by Elan Feingold decided that maybe an OSX version might have a market..as he puts it, "it seems like it’s a

9to5Mac: That sounds like a lot of amazing stuff. What functionality are you working on now?

Elan: We don’t support DLL loading on OS X yet (or linux, that i know of), but we CAN. Note that the Xbox version of XBMC supported Windows codecs through DLL loading for "closed" formats like RealAudio, WMV etc. We can use and enhance the existing DLL loading code which comes from MPlayer. We are also working on full support for the Apple Remote and other popular remotes out there like the wireless XBox 360 controller, etc. We also want to get Python working as soon as possible. As more people join the project, more interesting things get picked up.

9to5Mac: Speaking of other devices, do you have any plans to port XBMC to the AppleTV?

Elan: Unless Apple opens up a SDK for the AppleTV, it is very unlikely that our core group will do so. We are all huge fans of Apple and are trying to stay on their good side. We’ve talked to a lot of people lately who say they went and picked up a Mac Mini for the sole purpose of running the XBMC. Hopefully we are putting some money into Apple’s coffers for developing such a great operating system and hardware combination.

9to5Mac: (plays devil’s advocate) Why not just put XBMC on a cheap ShuttlePC with Linux and let it be the sole application? XBMC would appear to be almost everything you need in a mediacenter PC.

Elan: I happen to think OS X is a much better platform for XBMC than Linux. It’s got great OpenGL support and in the long term, desktop Linux (in my opinion) just hasn’t stuck. People who love Unix are moving to OS X. My grandmother is moving to OS X…and what better looking HTPC is there than the Mac Mini?
Oh, and Linux probably has more OpenGL driver issues. Ultimately, though, as compared to the original Xbox version, I think there is use for an OS. For example, you can install some headless bittorrent client, ssh into it, or put whatever you want there to work along side XBMC. Those little boxes that just turn on and run a media center as firmware are ultimately limiting.

9to5Mac: You mentioned BitTorrent. Are there plans to include other media-centric applications like a Vuze, Sling Client, Joost, or EyeTV support?

Elan: I think there are some interesting things going on with Bittorrent in the field right now. I am focussed on Mac support so I can’t say specifically what is coming up. Those other applications are great reasons why you want a full OS underneath the media center. Again, it is an open platform, if you want to build it in, you are welcomed to – a bit of Python code later and you’ve got it.

9to5Mac: That brings us to the XBMC team itself, how have you found the team, the code, and the atmosphere?

Elan: It was highly intriguing to be brought into their inner circle. The XBMC code is top-notch, compared to lots of other open source products i’ve worked with. It’s well written by smart people who know what they’re doing…and "pike", the project manager boss-man does a really nice job of managing the project – something that’s lacking with lots of other open source projects.

9to5Mac: Cool, that really comes through in the buzz around the project and the quality of the product. One last thing. The name. It seems like it would be a big turnoff for Mac-heads and even Linux people. You’ve moved pretty far away from the XBox, any chance we’ll see a catchier name in the future?

Elan: There has been talk around the water cooler. Nothing yet to report on that.

9to5Mac: Thanks for your time Elan! We’ll let you get back to work. Or you can eat breakfast while we go to sleep…

If you wish your Mac could do a lot more and/or want an alternative to Apple’s iTunes/AppleTV/Front Row, check it out: Download

Although, it is only version 0.1, you can already see the awesome potential that this system has. 

From the site:

XBMC Project Background 

• See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XBMC

OS X Port Background 

• Goal: To provide the best media platform for the best computing platform. While XBMC has been the platform of choice for hardcore mediaphiles for many years, the fragile, underpowered, and discontinued (!) Xbox platform running unsanctioned code is driving the desire for new and more open platform support. The power and media-friendly nature of OS X combined with the powerful, attractive and affordable Apple hardware that is available make XBMC on OS X a truly perfect match. The current crop of commercial and open source media center options for personal use are either simply too difficult to use, lacking critical features, completely proprietary and closed, or simply too immature to be attractive for today’s living room and personal media enjoyment.
• The port is initially focused on core XBMC functionality, including rich video, music and photo support. The port is currently targeting only Leopard on Intel hardware
• The port will eventually add features that OS X users have come to expect from quality Mac applications, such as support for auto-updates, Growl integration, the Apple Remote, and many other features under consideration.
• 12 December 2007: OS X Port first announced.
• 4 February 2008: First drag and drop DMG package available with core features in a mostly working state (v.1).

 
Community Interest  

• Official XBMC OS X User+Dev Forums: 50,000+ views since 12/12/2007
• Official OS X XBMC Port homepage: 20,000 page views since 1/16/2008, now averaging around 2,000 vs

Current Status (Working features)

• Working sitings on current (Intel) Mac Mini, iMac, Mac Pro, MacBook Pro (X3100 graphics hardware DOESN’T play video).
• Audio
  • MP3
  • OGG
  • AAC
  • FLAC
  • MPC
  • Project M support for audio visualization
  • Playlists
• Videos
  • Playing (AC3/DTS digital passthrough is supported, analog downmixing is not working)
  • Full-screen support (XBMC with 1080P support that just works!)
• Photos
  • Viewing, browsing, slideshows
• XBMC Core App
  • Full
    UI working
    (minus on-screen keyboard weirdness)
  • Networking
  • Full-screen
  • Video thumbnails, IMDB, AllMusic lookups

Next Milestones

• Port of Python scripting support
• Add official OS X port remote control options/support
• AC3/DTS mixdown support
• Port of XBMC Virtual File System features (SMB, FTP, UPNP, etc.) 

Contact Info

• Official XBMC homepage: http://www.xbmc.org
• Official OS X XBMC Port homepage: http://www.osxbmc.com
• Official OS X XBMC Port wiki: http://dn-0.com/xbmc-trac/wiki
• OS X Port Contact: Elan Feingold (elan@xbmc.org)

Yeah the rest of the world is rolling their collective eyes because they’ve had 3G for like 35 years or something… but AT&T has just announced a major expansion of their 3G network in the US.  Their announcement  means AT&T will roll out an additional 1,500 cell sites in the U.S. this year adding 80 more cities – which will bring the total to 350 markets in the US – and all of the top 100 cities.   Just about ubiquitous enough for Apple to do some kind of 3G deal with AT&T, not just in iPhone, but also in iPod, and Mac laptops as well. 

We are still sticking to our Mayish prediction of iPhone3G rollout – about a year after the the original announcement.  Also, this is about the timewhen Japan, who’s networks aren’t compatible with EDGE, and the rest of Asia should start seeing the iPhone.  Also expect the EDGE iPhones to take two price cuts of $100 each before then.  One to eliminate the 8Gb iPhone in 1-2 months.  Another for when the 3G model comes out to clear the EDGE iPhone inventory.  Apple isn’t doing $200 price drops anymore.

As far as we know Apple is also sticking with their exclusivity agreement with AT&T and not going anywhere else.

The talking heads at AT&T have this to say about catching the US up to Europe and Asia’s networks (take it for what it is worth):

"Fast wireless broadband is the foundation for a whole range of new and emerging applications that our customers are adopting, including everything from social networking to sending live video and large business files," said Ralph de la Vega, president and CEO for AT&T’s wireless unit. "With these aggressive initiatives, we’re expanding the scope and the speed of our 3G capabilities, connecting people with their world and enabling more customers to do more with their wireless devices, wherever they may be.

"We’re also planning for the future by establishing a clear path to a 4G network that will meet the needs of our customers for years to come," said de la Vega.

The deployment of HSUPA this year is the next step in the evolution of AT&T’s 3G network, with further enhancements and speed boosts expected in the near future. This year’s HSUPA deployment will complete the transition of the AT&T 3G network to High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) standards, marking the only full transition by any wireless provider in the United States to this latest generation of wireless broadband capabilities.

As customer needs continue to evolve and grow in the future, AT&T’s global leadership in deployment of GSM technologies positions the company to continuously evolve its network to meet those needs. The evolution towards HSPA+ and LTE technologies will enable the company to continue to deliver higher speeds and capacity in the years to come.

"From the beginning, our wireless network has been designed with the future in mind," said de la Vega. "The capabilities of 3G standards will continue to expand over the next several years, enabling us to stay well ahead of our customers’ broadband needs. And looking even further into the future, our existing technologies provide the ideal platform for a smooth transition to next-generation platforms."

AT&T’s GSM technology also offers customers the largest international roaming footprint. AT&T devices work in 196 countries and regions — accounting for more than 90 percent of the planet. All GSM customers in those countries can roam on the AT&T network in the United States as well.

Apparantly, while we were all clamouring over the MacBook Air and iTunes Movie Rentals, AT&T was pushing through the FCC a proposed buyout of Aloha Communications.  Aloha had earlier bid and won the chunk of spectrum in the 700Mhz band that covers almost 2/3rd of US housholds.

The proposition won by a 4-1 vote.  One of the two democrats, Jonathan Adelstein, said he voted in favor of the Aloha sale because there was no public opposition to it but remained "troubled" that AT&T could hold a "disproportionate share of the spectrum" when the auction is finished. The other Democratic commissioner, Michael Copps, voted against the ruling.  He said the deal could have a large impact on a mobile voice and data market "that has seen round after round of consolidation in recent years."

Copps also raised concerns about the FCC’s review of the deal. The review "contains only an extremely abbreviated analysis of the competitive effects of this change in ownership," he said.

So we say to Mr. Adelstein: If you are really wondering about public opposition to telecommunications monopolies, maybe do a little more research.  For future reference, everyone in your district is against them. 

8Gb iPod Touch $300      8Gb iPhone – $400
16Gb iPod Touch $400    16Gb iPhone – $500
32Gb iPod Touch $500

It should be $100 for 8GB right?   Memory controllers and packaging design cost money – but for the most part on Apple iPhones and iPod Touches, the only difference is the RAM size.  To go from a 8Gb iPhone to a 16Gb iPhone – $100.  From a 8Gb iPod to a 16Gb iPod.  $100.

But to go from a 16Gb iPod to a 32GB iPod, 16GB of RAM,  it is also only $100.  How can they afford that?  It seems like quite a deal – even at $500.

Just an observation…

The Scotsman throws it out there:

GLOBAL giants including Apple and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp are believed to be considering rival bids for the internet company Yahoo, which has received a $44.6bn (£22.6bn) offer from Microsoft.

The conglomerate InterActiveCorp was another company named as a potential bidder for Yahoo, which is said to be unwilling to give in to Microsoft without a fight.

After Microsoft’s chief executive Steve Ballmer made the offer in a letter on Thursday, it emerged that Yahoo had rejected a similar takeover attempt by Ballmer’s organization a year before.

Yahoo chief executive and co-founder Jerry Yang is understood not to be Microsoft’s greatest fan, and would be prepared to line up another ‘white knight’ rather than concede to Ballmer.

It is believed he would be particularly open to a rescue bid from Steve Jobs’ Apple Corp, having openly expressed his admiration for the firm in the past.

Apple does have a bit of cash laying around ($16 Billion) and Steve Jobs did pay the Yahoo! VPs a visit last year.  According to Kara Swisher, it was quite the motivational speech.  Steve Jobs also knows how to bring a company back from the brink of collapse (see Apple 1997).

Stranger things have happened – and the drive from Cupertino to Sunnyvale is a bit shorter than from Redmond – not to mention that the Valley culture is much stronger at Apple and Yahoo than at Microsoft.

Also, Apple has much less overlap in products and services than Microsoft does with Yahoo. 

The unlikely move however, would put Apple in direct competition with (Apple Board member) Eric Schmidt’s Google, a partner and ally in its battle vs. a Microsoft dominated marketplace.

Other white Knights include InterActiveCorp, Rupert Murdoch’s NewsCorp (yikes!) and some foreign suitors.

Dinosaur Securities analyst David Garrity even thinks it’s possible that China’s search leader, Baidu.com Inc., or Chinese e-commerce conglomerate Alibaba.com Inc. might bid for Yahoo. Alibaba.com is 40 percent owned by Yahoo.  He also considers Apple a potential suitor.

 Still though.  Super-unlikely.

Italy, Spain and Switzerland are next up in getting the iPhone officially from Apple according to a post by Macworld UK.

Spain Telefonica (parent company of  O2, the UK iPhone provider) and Telecom Italia Mobile for Italy are both said to be in the latter stages of a planned release..   Macity has reported that iPhone’s software already includes a piece of code (the TIM_Italy.bundle) that strongly suggests support for that network is already being built-in.

The announcements are going down next week in Barcelona at the World Mobile Congress (Feb 11-14) according to their sources.

A third publication, Le Temps, claims that Switzerland will also carry the iPhone on Swisscom by late February.  That is for the few people left in Europe who don’t already have a hacked iPhone.

The stars have been further aligning up lately on the new MacBook Pros.  If you are thinking about making an Apple laptop purchase hold out for a week or so.  MacRumors thinks it will be within two weeks and some new battery specs have hit the interwebs.  Also we’ve been hearing stories from  retailers that new SKU’s for MacBook Pros are hitting the streets (anyone care to elaborate?)…So our predictions are as follows:

• No big announcement and not released at Macworld so just minor upgrades, not major overhaul (bummer)
• Same basic design/form
• May be packaged with 10.5.2
• Keyboard like MacBook Air
• Most likely bigger multi-touch trackpad that looks much like the MacBook Air’s – same functionality
• 45nm Penryn chips will be marginally faster and save 10%ish on battery usage, upgraded graphics cards as well
• Same price points, 3 models – two 15’s and a 17 (now LED screened)
• Hopefully, but sadly doubtful 3G or WiMAX (We know we keep saying it but hopefully Apple will listen)
• Possibility being thinner package and of SSD option or hybrid config

They were hacked.  There are a lot of people who use phones outside of AT&T, and the European carriers.  But, are 1/3 of Apple’s iPhones hacked?  Probably.

For the people who say that they are in the "channel", we have to wonder what they are referring to.  RoughlyDrafted points this out as well.    iPhones are only sold by Apple’s online store and retail and its telecom partners.  Not by Best Buy or Target or Circuit City.  Apple knows exactly what’s in its inventory.  It also knows what AT&T and the EU’s got on their shelves.

Frankly, we think Apple wants us to say it.  Yes, "one-third of iPhones are now hacked to work on non-sanctioned providers".  Apple had to make this deal with the mobile carriers to let them use their networks for a reasonable fee.  Apple agreed to lock the iPhone down enough so that people would be coerced into using the providers.  But Apple wants this phone in as many hands as possible.  The ten million mark is something they’d like to make come hell or high water.  They probably weren’t anticipating a recession to be thrown into the mix either.

So there are over 2 billion people in China and India.  Is it impossible to believe that 200,000 of them (1/10,000th)  snapped up iPhones?  Now add in a bunch of Canadians, Mexicans, Indonesians Australians and Europeans.  It isn’t hard to find hacked iPhones.  Just look at our Google ads!  It also isn’t illegal.

Is it really so hard to believe?

18 84 58 A6 D1 50 34 DF E3 86 F2 3B 61 D4 37 74

One thing that stood out from all of the reviews was Ed Baig’s comment that Steve Jobs wanted to put 3G access into the Air but ran out of room.

Air does not come with the built-in ability to connect to a speedy wireless data network run by various cellular carriers. Jobs told me last week that Apple considered it but that adding the capability would take up room and restrict consumers to a particular carrier. Through a USB modem, he says, you can still subscribe to wireless broadband with your favorite carrier.

I hate to badmouth Mr. Baig and Mr. Jobs but there is no other way to put it.    BS!…

Taking up room? Currently, the latest 3G chips are the size of a fingernail and reside in the smallest of cell phones – let alone computers. If Apple needed to add some space, the added millimeters wouldn’t make any discernible difference to the size of the Air. While the argument could be made for the iPhone that the 3G card drains the battery, it is damn near impossible to argue this with a laptop.  Also the power and the antenna can be shared with the Wifi – just like in the motherboard design of Sony’s latest TZ  WITH 3G. 

Restricting carriers? Putting a HSDPA chipset in the Air would allow the consumers to choose between Tmobile or AT&T in the US and tons of carrier choices abroad.  Just like Dell, HP, Sony, and others have been doing for years.  Even an EVDO chip would allow carrier choice between Sprint and Verizon. Besides, SINCE WHEN IS APPLE ABOUT GIVING ITS CUSTOMERS OPERATOR CHOICE?!

Oh, and in case you are thinking cost… The bulk price on 3G chips is $23. Not much when you consider that the starting price on the Air is almost $1800.

So why did Apple leave out the 3G on the MacBook Air? We are looking into it – we have our theories. As for now, I stick with my initial reaction – wait for Rev 2.  IF you think you know – vote!

Kids today!  So smart but wasting their talents in the wrong places.  Take a one Mr. Brandon Holland from the Great White North.  At the ripe age of 19, he’s developing a Skype hack for the AppleTV.  While a commendable feat, not many people want to be making phone calls from their TV’s.  Why not spend your time working on a SlingPlayer hack for AppleTV?  Or better yet get your lovely Skype hacking abilities on the iPhone/iPod Touch already.  Someone call Erica Sadun to mentor this kid stat!

He wrote into AppleTV Hacks and said:

Hey Apple TV Hacks, I have started developing a Skype Plugin that will utilize the Skype API and make the user able to make calls and send text messages to anyone on there Skype contact list. As far as calls go, I think a standard usb headset or usb phone will work. Text messages will most likely be entered using the remote and the standard text entering method. No release yet, but I will release a beta as soon as it is able to make calls. Huzzah!

The iPhone SDK is due next month and there is a lot of speculation on exactly how it will all work.  Stevo has said he is fond of the Nokia model and we’ve heard comparisons to the Tmobile Sidekick’s delivery system.

We know that Apple has stockholder interests to protect and will likely take a cut of the cheddar on apps that it delivers.  How picky Apple is about what type of apps get on the platform is another story entirely.  We already know that, for whatever reason, Apple isn’t fond of putting iChat-type of Instant Messaging on the platform.  Whether this is to encourage the lucative SMS services or to save AT&T some terrabytes on bandwidth is not really certain.  The question is whether they will extend this blockage to the SDK. 

For instance we know that a lot of VOIP providers would like to be on the iPhone.  Will Apple let this fly?  Doubtful. 

Other services like Sling, which could be a competitor to AppleTV might also be in the doghouse.

Some pieces of the puzzle might be starting to come together on the technical details of the system Apple will employ to deliver these developer applications.  The five new apps for the iPod touch were delivered by a system that is likely the basis for the upcoming mobile application delivery model.

Berble mentions:

…The application download arrives with an .ipa extension, which in reality is a zipped archive of files which is Apples’ common method of application storage for OSX.

Now it appears that the new iPod touch applications are not actually included in the downloaded file, they seem to be included in the 1.1.3 update itself and the download just includes codes to unlock them.

As expected everything is encrypted so as not to make things too easy for the pirates. Of course this doesn’t answer all the questions we are itching to find out like…

More to come as we try to piece the iPhone SDK model together over the next month

A huge Apple Store is coming to the Carrousel du Louvre shopping center in Paris, according to a press release by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Paris. 

Translating the caption:

"Paris is assisting in the return of big international brands who are notably creating flagship stores on major Parisian streets in order to promote their brand image. Some of these brands, like Uniglo (rue de la Chaussée d’Antin), Sony and Agnès B (avenue Georges V) or Apple (Carrousel du Louvre) are leaving behind their spaces in department stores to instead show themselves in broad daylight on surfaces that sometimes surpass 1000 square meters. (That’s over 10,000 sq. feet)"

From Hardmac, it looks like the store will be spread over two floors and be adjacent to the world famous Louvre Museum which brings immeasurable amount of foot traffic to its  doors.

Although there hasn’t been any news from Apple on the new store, they will likely take the opportunity of the local to do something special.  We are looking forward to seeing what they come up with.

MacSpeech, who have been slanging a respectable iListen product to Mac users since the days of OS9, have canned their software in favor of a licensing deal with Nuance Technologies – which brings the most advanced consumer speech recognition engine, Dragon Natually Speaking, to the Mac Platform. 

BTW- We have a great idea for the old iListen engine: Open Source it!  CMU Sphinx is getting old.

According to ITWire:

For users of iListen, MacSpeech is offering reductions on the retail price ($US199) of the new product, MacSpeech Dictate when it goes on sale on 15 February. Any registered user will be able to buy the new product for $US99, those who have bought iListen in 2008, for $US29.

The most recent version of iListen, 1.8, was released only on 30 November 2007 at an upgrade cost of $US39.95 and according to the few comments posted on VersionTracker,   was a significant improvement on earlier versions. So there may well be a few customers now regretting forking out $US40 for that upgrade because that purchase gives them no additional discount on the new product.

MacSpeech claims that MacSpeech Dictate is a great improvement on iListen. "Now for the first time, Mac users can begin dictating straight into their applications with very little time spent training the software to recognise their voice." It claims that training MacSpeech Dictate up to a 99 percent accuracy level,generally takes less than five minutes and that the product "performs at the highest accuracy level on the market today…Using the new MacSpeech Dictate, user-spoken commands are recognised separately from dictation, liberating the user from the need to tell the software to change modes, simplifying the experience."

The product is not targeted only at those who for whatever reason find keyboard use difficult. MacSpeech Dictate is "designed to simply make computer input easier for anyone. Whether composing email, writing a report or even a novel, MacSpeech Dictate makes the computing experience more comfortable," the company claims.

http://services.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f8/452319854

The French Applestore has some interesting details on their website. 

According to the French Apple Store Translated into English :

Using a technology similar to the iPod nano and other products to flash memory, MacBook Air incorporates for the first time a disk SSD (solid-state drive). Available in two capacities, these discs contain no removable parts and accessing data much faster than standard hard drives, which translates into a significant improvement in performance when running the computer and opening files and applications. In addition, the SSD drives offer better durability and better preserve the data in case of accidental fall.

Was Apple planning to make the SSD Drive in the MacBook Air available in two sizes?  IS another option coming up?  What other size should they have offered?  48Gb?  128 Gb? Or it could be a typo?  Look for it to change shortly.  Picture after the break…

(Thanks Camille)

Wired’s artists seem to have a very good idea (of the profile at least) of the new MacBook.  The frontal is a little bit weird and we aren’t sure why it is so light – but the side view is very close to what we’ve been told.

Remember, for this thing not to fall over – a lot of weight needs to be put on the bottom – meaning battery and SSD.  However, Apple might have put the mothrboard behind the screen to save some space.  Also, if it folds all the way around 360 degrees it could make one helluva tablet.

Just saying is all.

Talk about your interesting days!  The Macbook Air Rumor went from a whisper to to an explosion today with all of the little tidbits being dug up.  The latest is that Apple has registered the domain names macbookair.net, .org, .biz, etc.

But not macbookair.com?  Who did that was a big mystery.  Well it turns out that it was Arn at Macrumors.com!  Arn, being the huge Apple fan that he is, said he is happy to transfer it to Apple if requested.

Right now, depending on your DNS, he has http://www.macbookair.com forwarding to:

http://www.apple.com/?Will+We+see+a+MacBookAir+on+Tuesday?

I think we know the answer to that.  Nice work Arn!

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=4750605&posted=1#post4750605

UPDATE: HA! This was much closer than anyone thought – great work!

NAS=Network Attatched Storage btw.  Yeah its a long shot but we like the idea!  Macrumors forum member tacojohn pointed us to this – hey!  Photoshop images can still be real ;P.  More picts and "specs" after the jump.

• 500GB or 1TB (RAID 1)
• WiFi Only
• Bonjour Networking
• iTunes & iPhoto library storage
• Any Apple wifi device can stream from it & sync with it
• $399 & $499

Oh, and relax people, yes its fake in case you didn’t get the vibe from the above "hints"!

We think this is very close to what will come on Tuesday – perhaps a bit darker and less iMac-y and we are getting somewhere.  Flickr user Superfunny.  Has anyone else seen any good mockups?

UPDATED: Appleinsider got the goods – spoiler – no placeshifting

With Sling backing up into EyeTV’s territory on the Mac and possibly even on the iPhone, the Mac TV tuner software maker looks to strike back.  TUAW reports that it is readying version 3.0 for Macworld.  Will EyeTV start firing back at Sling by introducing its own place shifting service?  CyTV is getting a little stale!

Also, will El Gato have anything to do with Apple TV 2.0 – rumored to be hitting at Macworld?  It certainly helps when your former CEO is now the head of Apple Germany.  Update: WAS the head of Apple Germany "Freddie Geier resigned as Apple CEO Germany/Austria in May 2007" – we didn’t get the memo.