Crapgadget: iStation woos Apple romantics with the glory of the late '70s, fails

Some people buy tablets for their portability and convenience. Others get sucked into the pitfalls of gadget lust, snatching up the latest tech. But for the dedicated fanboy, there's a whole world ofunnecessary kitsch just waiting to relieve'em of those hard-earned greenbacks. Enter M.I.C.'s iStation: an iOS dock in sorta, kinda Apple I / II clothing (their claim, not ours) that's ready and willing to cash in on your tech industry nostalgia. Alright, so this $85 setup won't exactly ape those Jobs / Woz lovechildren of the late '70s, but it does pack stereo speakers, a subwoofer, Bluetooth keyboard, USB port, microSD card slot and a 3.5mm headphone jack into its wood-paneling. Feeling spendthrifty? Good, then you can fork over the dough at the source below. Or, if you still need convincing, peep the video after the break and soak up the heavenly choral music. 
Source:http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/01/crapgadget-istation-woos-apple-romantics-with-the-glory-of-the/

iTether app skirts AT&T tethering plan, sets up shop in iOS app store

Ready to share your iPhone's data plan with your laptop without springing for the requisite tethering plan? No, it's not another brightly colored, data smuggling easter egg, it's iTether, a USB tethering app that has apparently made its way through Apple's approval process. The data sharing newcomer promises to pipe your existing data plan to your PC via a companion desktop application. If history is anything to go by, this $15 app won't be available for long, so you'd better get while the getting's good -- it seems that high demand has already taken Tether's website down.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

 

 

 

Source: http://dailynewsreviews.blogspot.com/2011/11/itether-app-skirts-at-tethering-plan.html

Apple's founding documents go up for auction, estimated to bring in $150k

Sure, your OG iPhone may look like a relic from Apple's past, but for a true bite of old skool memorabilia you may want to consider bidding on the company's original founding documents signed by Steve Jobs,Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne. The three-page treasure, which established the Apple Computer Company way back in 1976 won't come cheap, though, as they're expected to go for a cool $100,000 to $150,000. Besides the starting papers, Sotheby's New York is throwing in Ronald Wayne's Statement of Withdrawal as part of the package, a document that gives up his ten percent stake in the biz -- what some may call a $2.6 billion dollar mistake. Check out the source for more auction details.

Source: http://dailynewsreviews.blogspot.com/2011/11/apples-founding-documents-go-up-for.html

iOS 5.1 beta seeded to developers (Update: iPhone 5, new iPad and Apple TV revealed?)

The latest update to iOS 5 is drawing near, folks, as the beta of version 5.1 was just released on Apple's developer site. You can grab the build if you're in possession of an iPhone 3GS or later, either iPad or the third and fourth generations of the iPod Touch. We're hoping to see some fixes to the battery life issues on the iPhone 4S, as the company has acknowledged the concern and promised a fix in the near future. Stay tuned as we learn more about the new refresh.

Update: A little digging has already revealed a new product ID contained in the update, referencing an "iPad 2,4". There's some speculation that this could be a reference to a tablet with a modem from Sprint built in, but even if that's the case, who knows if it would actually be released prior to the next generation iPad.

Update 2: More leaks! Now 9to5Mac is reporting on a new device, codenamed "J33", which it believes refers to a new model of the Apple TV box. Hit up the link for a few more well-reasoned rumors, we'll let you know if any more details surface.

Update 3: Ok, now we're starting to think someone in Cupertino is just screwing with us. One more time, sleuths have uncovered a reference to the elusive iPhone 5 (aka "iPhone 5,1") in the code, as shown above. Check the third link for more details from 9to5Mac, and prepare for a whole new round of next gen iPhone rumors incoming any minute now.

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/28/ios-5-1-beta-seeded-to-developers/

The Promise Of The 15-Inch MacBook Air

In my home office sits a 27-inch iMac with a secondary 24-inch LED Cinema Display attached to it. It’s a glorious vision of screen real estate.

And yet, I dread using it.

First world problem? It’s perhaps the definition of the term. But it’s true. I’m sitting here on a couch adjacent to my desk because I’d rather type this post on my MacBook Air. To be completely honest, I’d rather be using my iPad right now. But I must admit, it doesn’t come anywhere close to cutting it when it comes to typing more than a few dozen words. So for now, the MacBook Air exists as the pinnacle of personal computing in my eyes.

And it appears that those eyes are about to widen a bit.

The rumors which started as a trickle have now become a full-on stream. Apple appears to be gearing up to release a new 15-inch model in their thin laptop line. As of right now, the current MacBook Air models end at 13 inches. For many people, that doesn’t seem to be enough.

Earlier today, I posted some quick thoughts about a possible 15-inch MacBook Air. Most of the responses were along the lines of “WANT!!!”. But why? It’s not like the difference between 13 and 15 inches will be that dramatic.

Instead, I believe it’s related to a continuing shift in computing. Whereas a decade ago, big, bulky desktops (towers, even) were the norm, today’s computing world is increasingly mobile. And it’s more than that. Computing is quickly moving in the direction of the machines themselves disappearing into the background, as Mathew Ingram highlights today on GigaOM.

It was a little over a year ago that I realized I would be ready to buy something like a MacBook Air. I noticed that I had never once used the optical drive in my MacBook Pro, it was just a giant waste of space and unwelcome bulk. My sense was right. I immediately replaced my Pro with an Air and haven’t looked back since.

But others have been hesitant to do so. Some worry about having less storage. Others worry about less potential RAM upgrades. Even more seem to worry about using a smaller screen. Of course, that argument is already more complicated than it may seem because the 13-inch MacBook Air and the 15-inch MacBook Pro actually offer the exact same screen resolutions (1440 x 900). Still, we’re in this weird transition moment where the previous era of expanding screen sizes is running headfirst into the era of shrinking computers.

Many likely view a 15-inch MacBook Air as a perfect compromise between the two worlds. It represents as many as 1920 x 1200 pixels (guesstimate based on the resolution of the 17-inch MacBook Pro — but might it be even more?) floating in your lap. Sure, there’s a computer attached to it, but it’s so light that you’ll barely notice it.

Remember when laptops were humongous? I recall having a 15.4-inch Dell that weighed just shy of 10 pounds and doubled as a thigh cooker. The battery lasted 2 hours if I turned the brightness down all the way and prayed. A 15-inch MacBook Air would probably be no more than 3.5 pounds — or a full two pounds lighter than a 15-inch MacBook Pro. The battery may last 9 hours.

Such a machine represents the opposite of being chained to a desk. You can take it anywhere for an extended period of time and still feel like you have a fully operation personal computer at your disposal. You don’t even think about it being a computer at that point, it’s just a big screen with a keyboard that gives you all the same abilities as that big, bulky machine on your desk.

It will lack multi-touch, but that’s clearly next. The iPad 3′s 2048 × 1536 resolution display should only drive that point home.

While the Apple may have kicked this transition into high gear, they’re hardly alone. When netbooks were surging in popularity, everyone focused on the price. But just as important was the portability factor. But the reality was the netbooks did not turn out to be worthy traditional computer replacements — MacBook Airs are. That’s why this year at CES, the PC industry is poised for a do-over with the “ultrabooks” — a name that sounds as if it was dreamt up by a completely unimaginative 12 year old.

The vast majority of those will probably fail, but the idea is the right one. Push forward into computing’s future by removing the computer as much as possible. That’s also the promise of the 15-inch MacBook Air.

Source: http://dailynewsreviews.blogspot.com/2011/11/promise-of-15-inch-macbook-air.html

eBay Sold Four iPad 2s Per Minute This Cyber Monday Morning

Online commerce giant eBay this morning ran a Cyber Monday deal for a white Apple iPad 2 WiFi 16GB, selling the popular tablet for $449 or exactly $50 off the MSRP (+ free shipping). Turns out a lot of people figured that was a great deal.

And they were right, too. After all, Apple only discounted the iPad 2 16GB with $41 on Black Friday, so you would indeed have been better off waiting until today and buying it on eBay … if you could get your hands on it quickly enough.

An eBay rep tells me that the iPad 2 was on sale for a mere two hours before it was sold out. At that price, people picked up four iPad 2 tablets per minute (or about 480 in total) during that time.

There were other deals on eBay that were worth breaking out your wallet for. The company sold a Microsoft Xbox 360 250GB Kinect Bundle for $259.99 – all 1,500 of those on sale were gone in 20 minutes (or 75 bundles sold per minute).

eBay also sold a HP 3105m laptop for $199.99, and sold nearly three units per minute to sell out the notebook PC in just over three hours.

It also knocked a whopping 58 percent off a RIM BlackBerry PlayBook 32GB ($249), but it hasn’t sold out yet today – which I guess says a lot more about the tablet than it does about eBay

Source: http://dailynewsreviews.blogspot.com/2011/11/ebay-sold-four-ipad-2s-per-minute-this.html

iPhone 4 combusts on Australian flight, looks madder than a spurned Qantas employee

On an airline that's actually serving the great country of Australia these days, an iPhone 4 decided enough was enough. Shortly after Regional Express flight ZL319 landed in Sydney from Lismore, "a passenger's mobile phone started emitting a significant amount of dense smoke, accompanied by a red glow." What happened next is a bit of an Aussie mystery, but it seems at some point that the glow was "extinguished successfully." No one onboard was harmed, and the handset in question has been handed over to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau for "analysis." It suffered only mild reception issuesprior to its final collapse, and if faced with a similar situation, Siri reportedly stated that it would consult a therapist before discharging hot fury.

Source: http://dailynewsreviews.blogspot.com/2011/11/iphone-4-combusts-on-australian-flight.html

Peter Thiel To The New Yorker: “I Don’t Consider [The iPhone] To Be A Technological Breakthrough”

Peter Thiel is a grump, but a special kind of grump. He is a dystopian utopian (if such a person can exist). The investor who wrote the first check for Facebook both believes in the power of technology to transform our lives, and is perennially disappointed by it. A lengthy profile in the November 28, 2011 edition of the New Yorker (summary here) states: “his main lament is that America—the country that invented the modern assembly line, the skyscraper, the airplane, and the personal computer—has lost its belief in the future.” It is an argument he’s made before. Last September, at Disrupt SF he made the case that innovation is dead across most of the economy (you can watch the video of the session below). He is co-authoring a book on the subject with Max Levchin and Gary Kasparov, called The Blueprint. But what about something like the iPhone? ”I don’t consider this to be a technological breakthrough,” he tells the New Yorker. Technology simply isn’t creating enough jobs or moving the needle in areas like transportation, health, or energy. From the article, here is his assessment on the impact of the Internet, Apple, and Twitter:

“The Internet—I think it’s a net plus, but not a big one,” he said. “Apple is an innovative company, but I think it’s mostly a design innovator.” Twitter has a lot of users, but it doesn’t employ that many Americans: “Five hundred people will have job security for the next decade, but how much value does it create for the entire economy ? It may not be enough to dramatically improve living standards in the U.S. over the next decade or two decades.”

Thiel is a natural contrarian who is never satisfied with the status quo, which is a good thing in a venture capitalist and startup mentor. But I think he dismisses the global impact of technologies like the iPhone and social networks a bit too easily. Having a fully functioning computer in your pocket opens up entirely new experiences—and markets. Was it predictable? Yes. But that doesn’t make it any less transformative. Social media, combined with mobile technologies, are powering protests and revolutions around the world and changing the way people consume information. But will these technologies improve living standards? The fact that the companies creating the technologies are capital efficient shouldn’t be a mark against them. What about the economic value created by the people who use the technologies. Putting a computer in the hands of business people away from the office, or a farmer in the field could yield significant improvements in productivity. It all depends on what kind of value you place on staying connected.   Source : http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/21/peter-thiel-new-yorker-grump/

Apple Promises iOS 5 Update In A Few Weeks To Suck Less Battery Life

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve heard the same thing over and over again. “The iPhone 4S is awesome, but…” And it’s a big “but”. The battery life. It sucks.

Well, to be clear, it sucks for some users, but not all. For example, I’m not noticing anything out of the ordinary on my device. It’s essentially the same battery life I got with the iPhone 4 running iOS 4, as far as I can tell. But today Apple has acknowledged that some bugs are causing some issues with the battery life. But they say it’s not an iPhone 4S issue, but rather an iOS 5 issue. In other words, it’s software, not hardware. More importantly, a fix is coming.

“A small number of customers have reported lower than expected battery life on iOS 5 devices. We have found a few bugs that are affecting battery life and we will release a software update to address those in a few weeks,” an Apple spokesperson told us today over the phone.

“In a few weeks” sounds a bit vague, but it may actually be a bit sooner than that. This afternoon,Apple issued the first iOS 5.0.1 builds to developers. Guess what’s included? Yep — “Fixes bugs affecting battery life “. They’ll need to test this build with developers for a bit to ensure there are no other bugs, but assuming that goes well, this should be out soon.

In the meantime, we published some tips yesterday to help with battery issues if you’re having them. Again, the good news here is that this is a software issue in iOS 5, nothing fundamentally wrong with the iPhone 4S.

Source: http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/02/iphone-4s-ios-5-battery-fix/