Apple Reporter

The 2008 WWDC Keynote begins in about 15 minutes, and the internet is abuzz with predictions for what Apple is planning. Here are some of my predictions for what we will see at this year’s WWDC 2008 Keynote.

• 3G iPhone: Duh. While the first generation iPhone has only been around for about a year or so, the demand for a 3G iPhone is extraordinary. There has been way too many “leaks” for Apple to deny the fact that they are making a 3G iPhone. My expectations: standard 16GB, maybe a 32GB as well, starting at $199 and $299 respectively.
• “Snow Leopard“: While I’m not entirely sure about this one, I believe there has been enough development for the iPhone in order to necessitate some sort of “developer” edition of Leopard. Maybe it is a less memory-intensive version of Leopard; built for pure developing. Price will be $99, offered at WWDC immediately following the keynote, available across Apple stores starting tomorrow.
• Mac Tablet: It is probable that Apple has been in the works making a Tablet for a while, maybe even before the iPhone. Meant for graphic designers, engineers, etc. Starts (begin extreme speculation) at $1499, 2.4GHz, 2GB RAM.

That’s my short list of predictions. I won’t be liveblogging the liveblogging like I normally do (I’m in Biology class right now) but I will be reading the liveblog at MacRumorsLive and posting important announcements as they are.. announced.

Two Apple Store employees have been charged with stealing 332 iPhones from the Mall in Rockingham Park Apple Store. According to Salem, New Hampshire police, Joshua Garrand and Christopher Nashed stole $132,468 worth of iPhones and sold them on the black market.

Nashed is being held on $250,000 bail at Rockingham County jail, while Garrand is at Essex County Jail in Middlesex, Massachusetts under charges of “fugitive from justice”. From the Eagle Tribune:

Garrand and Nashed were taken into custody at their homes yesterday afternoon without incident.

“These (phones) are in very high demand,” said Deputy police Chief William Ganley.

Police wouldn’t say whether the men were selling the phones online or how sophisticated their operation was. Investigators were first contacted by the store in early January. Salem police Sgt. Steve Malisos dug through store records and spent three months on the case.”

As much as we all love the Apple Store employees, it seems some of them are just bad Apples… (bad, I know). This reinforces the truth about the iPhone craze and really all Apple products in general. It seems that Apple products cause a kind of craze, and this story is really the same as when you read about children getting their iPod stolen, or a man getting killed over his hot new tech product.

Either way, these two guys are making my dream job look really lame; if they are really looking to make some more money, they should’ve tried making their own Apple or finding the next big thing in tech, stealing from your place of work and reselling the goods is definitely lame, especially when it’s an iPhone. Potential iPhone buyers, careful where you buy that iPhone: Who knows if it’s one of the 332 stolen iPhones.

[via]

It’s been out for only 6 days, and already the iPhone/iPod Touch firmware version 1.1.3 has been jailbroken by the iPhone Dev Team. According to Jonathan Zdziarski, the developer of the NES.app application for the iPhone and iPod touch and also a member of the iPhone Dev Team, the jailbreak is software-based and was created by himself and six other members. From Jonathan’s page:

“I wasn’t going to post anything, but since there is a lot of confusion surrounding the 1.1.3 jailbreak, I thought I’d clear a few misconceptions up. The iPhone-Elite team and the iPhone/iTouch Dev teams have recently merged and collaborated on a software jailbreak for v1.1.3. I’ve posted some screenshots here and here. Overall, it took the work of about seven members, including myself, to craft this jailbreak - it was a true team effort. It has been previously speculated that this followed up a previous hardware jailbreak, but this is not the case. The software method we used involves some fancy command-line work, however a few other team members have already begun writing scripts to perform most of the difficult stuff, dramatically reducing the amount of time and brain power you’ll need to invest. As to why it hasn’t been released yet, we’re actually a bit torn about the subject. Some of us would like to see it released, but at the end of the day it really does make sense to hang onto the method until next month when Apple’s SDK is released.

According to the post, the jailbreak will apparently not be released soon, apparently not until past the SDK is released (end of February). This could be disappointing for those who upgraded to the 1.1.3 firmware from jailbroken devices, but we can hope that when the SDK is released there will be no need for jailbreak applications.

The last jailbreak for the iPhone and iPod Touch was 1.1.2, which required a downgrade to 1.1.1 and back to 1.1.2. There was also a variety of methods to jailbreak the iPhone and iPod Touch after this, including the TIFF exploit in Safari. With the 1.1.3 update, Apple has made it more difficult to jailbreak the devices, not unlike the catch-up game that PSP users are playing with Sony right now.

[via iPhone Atlas]

So here we are. It’s time for Macworld 2008. Refresh your browsers and get ready for an exciting morning. The keynote starts at 9 AM PST.

8:15 AM: People are beginning to get press badges for the keynote. No one has been allowed in yet, as far as I know.

8:50 AM: Press is about to be let in to the Center.

9:00 AM: People are in the Center now, Coldplay playing while we wait for the Stevester.

9:05 AM: Starting the keynote in a minute or so..

9:13 AM: Lights beginning to dim.

9:14: Get a Mac Ad playing..

9:14: Steve is on stage, talking about Leopard selling 5 million copies, almost 20% of installed base has upgraded.

9:17: Microsoft Office 2008 is shipping as of today.

9:19: Time Machine is good, but not good enough for notebooks. New product announced: Time Capsule

9:19: Time Capsule is Airport Express with build in hard drive for backups.

9:20: Two versions announced: 500 gb - $299, 1 TB - $499.

9:20: Showing Mac/PC ad for Time Machine

9:21: Second thing: iPhone

9:21: iPhone been out on market for 200 days, 4 million sold. 20,000 sold per day average

9:23: iPhone holds around 20% of Smartphone market in US

9:25: Talking about SDK coming out in February, “we wanted to give everybody something today too”… New features announced: Web Clips, Maps with GPS location, home screen customization.. etc, (just like 1.1.3 firmware)

9:28: Still demoing all the different features, SMS texting, etc.

9:30: Showing “Add to home screen” feature

9:31: Up to 9 Webclips on your home screen at a time

9:33: Showing off Locate Me feature on Google Maps, uses Google and Skyhook wireless

9:34: Update 1.1.3 is available today.
9:35: Mail, Maps, Stocks, Notes, and Weather are now available for iPod Touch (finally). $20 upgrade for iPod Touch users (WTF?)

9:35: Third Thing: iTunes

9:36: 4 billion songs sold as of last week, 20 million sold on Christmas day. 125 million TV shows sold. 7 million movies.

>

9:37: iTunes Movie Rentals

9:38: Every major movie studio is on board, Touchstone, Miramax, MGM, Lionsgate, Newline, Fox, WB, Disney, Paramount, Universal, Sony.

9:40: Over 1000 movies available. Watch on Macs, PCs. all iPods and iPhones on the market.

9:40: Watch the movies instantly.

9:41: Library titles are $2.99, New Releases $3.99.

9:42: Launches today in U.S., International is later in the year. Updates will follow for iPods/iPhones and iTunes.

9:45: Apple TV take two, no computer requirement, rent movies, DVD and HD + 5.1 Surround sound. Audio and Video podcasts, and photos from Flickr (woo) and .Mac.

9:46: Syncs with iTunes, HD rentals are $4.99, 100 titles available today

9:47: Showing demo of Apple TV

9:49: Preview movies from interface, see what other renters of that movie have rented.

9:51: Showing a scene from Die Hard, third time we’ve seen Justin Long today.

9:52: Searching through iTunes Movies

9:53: Showing off new UI for Apple TV

9:56: Showing Photos feature, stream directly off of .Mac servers

9:58: Showing Flickr on Apple TV, really nice looking.

10:00: Flickr causing some technical difficulties.. demo is now over, reviewing the features

10:01: Apple TV update is a free software update. Price has been dropped $70 to $229. New software update will be out in two weeks.

10:02: Welcoming CEO of Fox to stage, Jim Gianopulos.

10:05: Apple is reinventing the movie rental model

10:07: Talking about DVDs, Family Guy DVD has a iTunes compatible copy.

10:07: Stevester is back on stage.

10:08: Fourth Thing: There’s something in the air..

10:09: Macbook Air. “The World’s Thinnest Notebook”

10:10: Comparing to Sony TZ notebooks, 3 lbs — too much compromise with other features.

10:12: Macbook Air is 0.16″ to 0.76″ thick. It fits inside an envelope.

10:12: Magnetic Latch, 13.3″ widescreen

10:13: LED backlit, iSight, Macbook-like keyboard but with light sensor, multi-touch trackpad

thanks to Gizmodo for the pic

10:15: Showing off trackpad, moving windows, rotating windows, etc.

10:16: 1.8″ hard drive, 80 GB hard drive standard, 64 GB SSD as an option.

10:17: 1.6 GHz standard, 1.8 GHz option — kinda slow, isn’t it?

10:18: Paul Otellini, CEO of Intel taking stage, talking about processor size.

10:19: Steve back on stage

10:20: 45 Watt MagSafe, 1 USB 2.0 Port, Micro-DVI, Audio Out

10:21: 802.11n + Bluetooth 2.1

10:22: New feature called Remote Disc for installing things via CDs and DVDs, Macbook Air has no optical drive, Superdrive accessory for $99.

10:23: 5 hours of battery life

10:24: 2GB RAM standard

10:25: $1799, ships in two weeks, preorder today

10:25: Showing ad for Air

10:27: Environmentally friendly, recyclable case, mercury and lead free display, BFR free circuit boards, etc.

10:29: Steve–First two weeks of 2008, we have updated MAc Pro, introduced Time Capsule and Macbook Air, updated iPhone, iPod Touch, and Apple TV, and added movie rentals for iTunes.

10:31: Randy Newman about to perform

Well, that seems like it is it. Thanks for all of you who stayed for the whole thing, and an overview of all the new products will be up this afternoon.

Ryan Block, editor of Engadget has posted his predictions about Macworld 2008. From the post:

“…a day doesn’t goes by I’m not asked at least a few times what inside dope I’ve got on what Apple’s introducing at Macworld. My stock response is (and always will be), “Everything I know is published on Engadget.” Now, I’m also not usually one to grasp at predictions (just not my thing), but what the hell. If you’re curious as to what I THINK — and not necessarily know — will go down at MW08, here’s the shortlist…”

Some of the predictions are pretty interesting, certainly things I wouldn’t think about, such as refreshes to the Cinema Display and different video outputs on the laptops. While Ryan has said that the list are guesses, I am sure that the chief editor of the most popular tech blog on the Internet is likely to know at least something about Macworld.

I’d like to put in my opinion on some of the items that Block addressed also.

Number 1 - iPhone SDK: The SDK, which has been promised by Jobs already, is sure to be given an official release date, as well as more insight into what the SDK really is. Hopefully the SDK will be powerful enough that Apple will have to continually shutdown third-party apps in every firmware update.

Number 2 - The Slim Laptop: Already been covered.

Number 3 - iPhone 2.0/3G: Something that everyone is pretty much expecting, the 3G iPhone has already been confirmed by the AT&T CEO, and Steve Jobs himself has said that the 3G iPhone will be out next year.

For the remainder of the predictions, you can go to Block’s site and read the predictions there.

Note: The above picture is a mockup from MacNewbTube that has been used in previous posts.

Happy New Year! It’s 2008, and that means Macworld is in about two weeks. Unfortunately, I will not be attending (Apple Reporter doesn’t meet the requirements for a media organization), but I will keep up with the big stories from Macworld, including Steve Job’s keynote on January 14th. Also, if readers wish to inform me of any news they’ve picked up on, you can email me at kristianfreemanATgmailDOTcom.

Products

2007 was a big year for Apple. All of us who have been waiting for the moment that Apple really broke into the mainstream were ecstatic when iTunes had reached 3 billion downloads on July 31st. We were amazed when the iPhone was released on June 29th to rave reviews. And like always, we were happy to see that the iPod was/is the best MP3 player out on the market, thanks to the release of the third generation iPod Nano, sixth generation iPod (classic), and iPod Touch.

Reputation

In 2006, Apple was pretty much known for the letter “i”. There was the iPod, iTunes, the iMac, if you saw something that started with that lower-case “i”, it had to do with Apple and one of their products. This year, Apple was more than just the creator of the iPod. Apple’s market share in the computer industry rose to 8.1%, and it is now the third most-selling computer vendor in the United States. With the release of the iPhone and new iPods, Apple’s stock (AAPL) rose to the highest they have been in 4 years this December. 2008 looks to be a great year for Apple’s reputation, if they continue on the streak they’ve been going on so far.

Macworld

Like I said earlier, Macworld is in less than two weeks. With the expected announcement of the Macbook Slim and a 3G iPhone, Macworld is sure to be a big hit. The Slim, one of the most anxiously awaited products in Apple’s lineup (behind any new iPhone, of course), will probably be one of Apple’s best-selling laptops, assuming it is announced. And since AT&T’s CEO Randall Stephenson has already been quoted as saying the 3G iPhone is in the works, it would be surprising if it wasn’t announced at Macworld, but more surprising if it wasn’t announced this year.

Apple has a lot going for them, and with another year of high sales, it seems they can do no wrong. 2007 was my first year of being an Apple fan and a Mac user, and I am eagerly waiting 2008 and the new products I can hopefully get. As a reporter, I’d like to say congratulations to Mr. Jobs and Apple in whole for another good year. Keep on keepin’ on.

Newcomer to the Apple rumor mill Gearlive have posted 10 supposed new images of the latest iPhone update, 1.1.3.

App dragging on the Springboard

The images showcase 4 new features to the iPhone. The first of them being the ability to move around icons on your home screen of the iPhone. While the “springboard”, as it is referred to by iPhone users, has been enhanced before, the ability to move apps around is, as far as I can tell, a new feature to the iPhone.

Bookmarks on the Springboard

Next is the ability to add bookmarked pages from Safari to your home screen. The possibilities that are included with this feature are endless, and it is sure to be a feature that iPhone users will quickly integrate into their iPhone usage.

Maps — Locate Me, Hybrid View

Third in the feature list are new additions to the Maps app, based off of Google Maps. Maps now supports Hybrid mode, a recent addition to Google Maps, which is similar to the Satellite setting but with the addition of street names and other labels to roads, etc. Maps also sports new additions to the menu at the bottom of the app, including the biggest feature added to Maps: the “Locate Me” feature.

According to Gearlive, the feature uses cell-tower triangulation to locate the iPhone and subsequently the user on Maps. Like the home screen bookmarks, this feature is something that should quickly be integrated into the iPhone’s “must-use” features.

Multiple Contact SMS/Texting

The last feature shown in Gearlive’s gallery is the ability for SMS messages to be sent to multiple contacts. This feature is probably something that should’ve been included in iPhone v1.1.1, but the addition of this will please those of us who are text-message fiends.

Opinion/Analysis

While the fact that Gearlive is not a reputed site for Apple rumors remains, the features shown are pretty compelling evidence to show a new firmware update is in due order. While I do not keep track of every iPhone third-party app that is released, I am well informed enough to know that features like the ones shown would have been unmasked already.

Gizmodo has reported that the firmware shown is indeed real. While the confirmation is not from anyone close to Apple themselves, it is from a reputable iPhone hacker named Natetrue.

Nate says that the update brings the expected shutdown of third-party apps and unlocks, but this is expected for all updates (note that while Apple said they would shut down third-party software on the iPhone in 1.1.2, it was jailbroken within minutes).

[Thanks to Gearlive for images and Gizmodo for verification of update]

The brilliant people over at the iPodHacking forums have released a UI hack for your old (or in my case, current) iPod Video that can make the interface look pretty close to an iPhone.

The hack requires that you run Windows, as the program iPod Wizard is required. You must also not be afraid to potentially mess up your iPod, updating/changing your firmware is required and there is a possibility of error. I’ve done the hack myself, and it is definitely worth the trouble. The menu screen is really crisp and the Now Playing screen is amazing.

While I can’t offer any technical support, I can give you the link (click on the image below). There doesn’t seem to be that many problems, just a few bugs that’ll be fixed in time.

TUAW reports that reader B. Ioffe was told by former President Bill Clinton as he signed his iPhone that Clinton too was an iPhone user. Apparently, the iPhone was given to him by Steve Jobs himself. While this is not “breaking” news, it’s interesting to note that the iPhone is becoming very mainstream, no doubt thanks to Apple’s brilliant marketing of the product.

Thanks to TUAW for the picture and story.

Google, without any warning, launched its new interface for the Google homepage for the iPhone. According to Techcrunch, the new version was rumored to be released sometime this week, and yesterday it appeared without any notice.

The new interface is customized with that all too familiar interface that iPhone users are sure to be familiar with by now. The new interface shrinks the Google homepage down to the searchbar and a menu at the top, with a series of Google Apps and Services available with just a click, such as Gmail, Calendar, Reader, and more.

Without owning an iPhone, it is hard to test the new page. Anyone with an iPhone confirming this works? It should look like the picture below.

(thanks to Techcrunch for the image)

Chris Thomson writes at Chris24 about a discovery he has made on the iPhone Terms page and the iPhone page on the online Apple Store about picture and video messaging on the iPhone. Apparently, a section at the bottom of the page notes prices on international messaging:

Charges for international messages sent from the U.S. are 20¢ for Text Messages and 50¢ for Picture/Video Messages. Additional charges for premium messages and content apply. Messages over 300KBs billed at additional 50¢ per message.

Checking the designated sites mentioned by Chris show that this message does indeed appear. Is this an error by AT&T or Apple, or is this an accidental leak of new features coming out around Macworld next month?

Dear Apple,

We love your products. Some of us get our paychecks writing because of you and your products. The amount of care you put into your products is visible, sometimes, but other times it just feels like you build the products that we so graciously buy half-heartedly.

I myself have had numerous problems with my Apple purchases. I received my Macbook Pro January of this year, and from day one I had a problem. I realized that it would not play DVDs. I promptly sent it in to AppleCare, and within two weeks I had it back. Since then, I have not experienced much problems with it, until recently, when a slew of problems have all shown up instantly.

The Macbook Pro, since its creation and release in early-2006, has experienced numerous issues, and I myself have fell victim to a few of them. About 4 months after I purchased the Macbook Pro, the fan began to act up. After the installing of a third-party application to detect the fans’ speed and temperature, and it was then that I discovered that one of my fans was completely unresponsive, and that the entire computer was relying on only one fan.

The next issue I can’t blame on Apple entirely. In the Northwest during the Fall, we are victim to strong winds and along with that, power outages. As I left for school in the morning, I left my Pro plugged in to the Magsafe adapter, while it was asleep. Throughout a series of power outages, my Pro stayed charged, but asleep. When I used it on a Friday night, in my bed while it was unplugged, I shut it off. The next morning, I realized my Macbook Pro was completely inoperable unless plugged in. I, for the second time, called AppleCare and began the lengthy process of sending my Mac in for repair. I’m not blaming this issue on you, however, this event spawned a new set of problems.

My grandmother, who is quite tech-savvy, let me borrow her white Macbook while my Macbook Pro was in repair. I have had it for roughly 10 days, and already there has been a problem. I have treated it excellently, almost exclusively keeping it in a case when it was not sitting on my desk. But the plastic trim at the end of the Macbook, near the trackpad, is slowly coming off, leaving a disfigured area near the trackpad.

Around the same time, I also noticed that the Magsafe adapter that came with the Pro, which as you will remember I have had less than a year, is beginning to malfunction. I have discovered that I am not the first to experience problems with it. The wiring around the Magsafe end of the power brick is now exposed, and is only functional around 33% of the time.

Note, as I mentioned earlier, that people receive their paychecks from writing about you and your products. I am one of those people. I blog about exclusively Apple news at applereporter.com. But my experiences with Apple products have been less than satisfactory, to say the least. My next item on my Wish List, which I am vigorously saving up for, is an iPhone. But will I be subject to the same problems on the iPhone as I have been with my Macbook Pro? I hope not, because both are beautiful and quite functional products, but based on my previous and current experiences, I’m not sure I can safely trust that my iPhone would be durable enough to last even past a few months.

I urge you Apple, please take the time to actually work on your products. Do not be so eager to ship things out quickly, think back to the original Macintosh, which Apple spent years on creating before they released it. I am not saying that the products right now are horrible, on the contrary, I believe them to be some of the most useful and aesthetically pleasing products I have ever seen in my life, but instead, I ask that you think about the quality of your products and how, with a little bit of time, your consumer model could change from the generic fanboy who will buy your products, regardless of the quality of the products themselves, to the regular computer user, who should not have to be afraid of bad quality.

Sincerely,
Kristian Freeman
http://www.applereporter.com

Apple has posted their Black Friday deals for this year up on the Apple Store. While there are no extravagant deals on the expensive items, there are many small price cuts that are sure to appeal to a variety of shoppers.

Here’s a list of some of the most important cuts (note: these are not all of them):

• Macbook, save up to $101, now from $1048
• iMac, save up to $101, now from $1148
• Apple Bluetooth Headset, save up to $21, now from $108
• iPod Nano, save $11, now from $138
• iPod Shuffle, save $11, now from $68
• iPod Classic, save $31, now from $228
• $100 off Office 2004 with mail-in rebate, and with purchase, only a $6.95 upgrade fee to Office 2008

For all the great deals, either visit the Apple Store today, or download this simple image containing all the deals below.

The new update for the iPhone is officially on the Apple page. No word on features or anything yet, but hopefully soon we will see what has changed. My guess is that jailbreakme.com will not work. Sorry jailbreakers.

Update - Apparently the iPod Touch was jailbroken before the patch was even officially released. Here’s a picture, courtesy of the iPhone/iPod dev team.

[Download link]

After dropping the “Android” bombshell, Forbes has info on the prototype phone built by HTC for Android. 

 Look familiar? That’s because this picture has been floating around the web for a few weeks prior to Android’s announcement. Apparently, the “Dream”, as it is known by HTC, has many cool features, some of which are outlined by Forbes:

“It is thin, about 3 inches wide and 5 inches long, and features a touch-sensitive, rectangular screen… the screen is also time-sensitive: Hold down your finger longer, and the area you’re controlling expands. The bottom end of the handset, near the navigational controls, is slightly beveled so it nestles in the palm. The screen also swivels to one side, revealing a full keyboard beneath. (The screen display changes from a vertical portrait mode to a horizontal display when someone uses the keyboard.)”

Overall it looks pretty great, but why isn’t Verizon jumping in on this? They’re the biggest cellular provider out there, and with T-Mobile and Sprint both having the gPhone and Android available, and AT&T having the iPhone, looks like us Verizon users are stuck with Motorola **ZR’s.