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While there has been a lot of Apple news today, we can’t forget that one of the founders of the company, Steve Jobs, has a birthday. Yep, Steve turns 56 today, and health concerns aside we hope he has a great one.

Over the years he’s had a profound influence on our daily lives. From revolutionizing the computer industry to unleashing the creatitve power of Pixar to re-inventing Apple and making it a powerhouse of consumer electronics innovation, Mr. Jobs has almost been a national spokesperson for innovation and good design. A savvy businessman and astute judge of what works and what doesn’t when it comes to user-centric design, I think we all owe Steve a debt of gratitude for his uncompromising character and attention to detail.

On the next page there’s a YouTube tribute video that is short but sweet, plus a few links to some other videos of Steve throughout the years. Happy birthday, Mr. Jobs!

Continue reading Happy Birthday, Steve Jobs

Happy Birthday, Steve Jobs originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 24 Feb 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Today, Apple announced that Mac OS X Lion will include software that previously cost IT departments an extra $499: Mac OS X Lion Server.

“Lion Server is now part of Mac OS X Lion,” says Apple’s marketing web page. “It’s easy to set up your Mac as a server and take advantage of the many services Lion Server has to offer.”

Some advantages of the newly integrated suite of server administrative software include a guided setup process for configuring a Mac as a server; “local and remote administration – for users and groups, push notifications, file sharing, calendaring, mail, contacts, chat, Time Machine, VPN, web, and wiki services – all in one place”; “simple, profile-based setup and management for Mac OS X Lion, iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch devices” with Profile Manager; Wiki Server 3, designed to make it “even easier to collaborate, share, and exchange information”; and WebDAV services that give iPad users “the ability to [wirelessly] access, copy, and share documents on the server from applications such as Keynote, Numbers, and Pages.”

The built-in server software joins a long list of new features planned for inclusion in Mac OS X Lion, including Launchpad, full-screen apps, Mission Control, new gestures, global auto save, Versions, Resume, and AirDrop. According to Apple’s documentation for developers, Lion Server will appear as a customizable option during the initial installation process.

Mac OS X Lion is available as a developer preview today. It is scheduled for release this summer.

Lion Server to be bundled with Mac OS X Lion originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 24 Feb 2011 12:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The iPod nano software has been updated to allow users to control their music with the Sleep/Wake button. Specifically, there are two options. You can set the Sleep/Wake button to either skip to the next track or pause/play the current track with a double-click. Once the update is installed, you’ll find the option by tapping Settings, then Music and finally Sleep/Wake button.

Additionally, this update will let you turn the nano off completely. To do so, simply hold the Sleep/Wake button for a few seconds. Note that if you turn the nano back on within 5 minutes, it will remember most recent playlist and what was playing. What a smart little device.

You’ll find the the update by connecting your iPod nano to iTunes. Have fun!

iPod nano updated, control music using Sleep/Wake button originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 24 Feb 2011 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dig out your TV component cables if you have the SlingPlayer Mobile app on your iPhone, iPad or iPod — the latest version of the software now supports high quality mode video out to your television.

Version 2.1 of the popular TV-streaming app also includes a few unspecified bug fixes. You’ll need at least 800 Kbps of bandwidth over Wi-Fi or 500 Kbps over 3G for it to work on your iPhone 4, or 1200 and 800 respectively on your iPad. There goes the weekend…

[via Engadget]

SlingPlayer Mobile updated with video out originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 24 Feb 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Along with the launch of its new MacBook Pros which include FaceTime HD cameras, Apple has released an updated version of its FaceTime application. The new FaceTime for Mac lets you send and receive 720P HD video calls on supported Intel Macs. The standard iSight cameras on previous Mac hardware delivers VGA-quality calls, while the new MacBook Pro 2011 line is capable of 720P HD video. All hardware that meets the minimum specs can receive HD calls through this updated application. The app will be bundled with the new MacBook Pros and is available as a 99-cent upgrade for owners of previous generation hardware.

[Via Macstories]

FaceTime now in the Mac App Store, 720p video calling originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 24 Feb 2011 10:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center is getting all togged out for the March 2 event that should reveal the iPad 2. Crews began adding artwork to the building’s windows overnight, including an Apple logo (naturally) and colorful dots that we’ll leave you to interpret.

iPad 2 rumors have inundated us for weeks, and it will be quite a relief to finally meet the iPad 2 once and for all. Most suspect that it’ll have at least one camera, a thinner body, additional RAM and a higher-resolution screen (but not that high).

The event is scheduled for 10 AM Pacific Time, and we’ll have a meta-liveblog to keep you on top of all the info. See you then!

Apple preps Yerba Buena for March 2 event originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 24 Feb 2011 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s been a while getting here — Intel first demoed Light Peak at IDF in September 2009 — but the first production laptops featuring the new, rebranded Thunderbolt interface are about to ship, in the form of shiny new MacBook Pros. Thunderbolt’s raw speed (10 Gbps) and purported simplicity will enable MBP owners to work with massive storage on the go.

Both Intel and Apple have posted summary feature pages about the new connectivity option, including a list of potential peripheral partners and a tech brief PDF. Intel also has a launch event for the technology later today (10 AM Pacific), which may explain why the Apple Store is still down; they don’t want to tease the new peripherals and adapters until Intel has a chance to demo everything.

As rumored last week, the Thunderbolt connector replaces the Mini DisplayPort on the new MacBook Pro models, rather than subbing in for the USB ports as in preproduction versions of the technology. Apple’s existing Mini DisplayPort-based displays will work unmodified with the Thunderbolt port.

The real excitement, however, comes with new peripherals and adapters. Since Thunderbolt supports the PCI Express protocol, it should allow for dramatic expansion off of a single port; since the bulk of the MacBook Pro line gave up its ExpressPort card slot for an SDXC slot (except the 17″ model), the laptop line has been waiting for another high-speed option for video capture and connectivity. Apple’s feature rundown notes that Thunderbolt adapters will allow MacBook Pro users to connect to USB, HDMI, Firewire, Gigabit Ethernet or Fibre Channel at will (finally making the MacBook Pro a legitimate Xsan client). Imagine the next generation of MacBook Air sporting a Thunderbolt port, and getting back all the connectivity options traded off for size and weight savings.

It’s a safe bet that Thunderbolt will quickly replace Mini DisplayPort across the Mac desktop lines as well with the next iMac, Mac mini and Mac Pro revisions. Could it even work its way into iOS devices sometime soon? Your iPad would sync in seconds, or serve as an external high-performance display… so tempting.

We’ll check in on Intel’s launch event later today for more details on Thunderbolt and new products supporting it. Update: Cnet’s liveblog of the Intel press event revealed that the optical/hybrid cables for Thunderbolt will be available later this year & will support much longer cable lengths (as distinguished from the copper-only cables that will ship now, maxing out at 3 meters). The company also said there are no plans for a PCIe adapter card for Thunderbolt; the only way to get it will be with a new computer/motherboard.

Thunderbolt: Apple and Intel’s new interconnect originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 24 Feb 2011 10:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Chinese news sites are reporting that China Telecom has overcome technical challenges with the CDMA iPhone 4 and is prepared to launch the handset as early as June. Details were sparse but engineers have reportedly developed a workaround for the lack of a SIM slot in the CDMA iPhone 4.

Available from Verizon Wireless, the CDMA iPhone does not support a SIM card because the U.S. wireless carrier does not use the cellular technology in its handsets. China Telecom requires a SIM card, which poses a problem with the CDMA iPhone 4. As proof of their achievement, China Telecom employees in the Guangdong branch have posted pictures of the CDMA iPhone 4 with full 3G signal on China Telecom’s network.

Previous posting from this Guangdong group boast that the iPhone 4 has made its first official phone call on China’s #3 wireless carrier. The Xinhua News Agency, the official press agency of the government of the People’s Republic of China, reiterates this report and suggests the CDMA iPhone will be available in June. Much of this information is obtained from unofficial sources and China Telecom has not commented on these rumors, though the carrier has indicated in the past it is interested in carrying the CDMA iPhone 4.

Apple is interested in the Chinese market and is expecting to open up to 25 new stores in China over the next several years. Apple is reportedly looking to open a new store on Shanghai’s very popular and very busy Nanjing Road. This retail outlet will become China’s fifth Apple store and will be the largest one in China thus far.

CDMA iPhone 4 may land on China Telecom in June originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 24 Feb 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple has released the first developer preview of Mac OS X Lion and updated its information page on the operating system.

With this announcement comes new information on Lion’s features, including AirDrop, which allows for zero-configuration, wireless file sharing between Macs; a global auto-save, which saves your work for you and Versions, which automatically saves versions of documents you’re working on and provides a Time Machine-like interface for browsing them.

Mail.app has also been re-hauled and closely resembles Mail on the iPad.

Apple’s Lion features page has been updated with additional information. With Mission Control, Launchpad and full-screen apps, the Mac OS is looking more like is younger sibling, iOS, than ever.

Paid Mac dev center participants can download copies of Mac OS X Lion from the Mac App Store by requesting a redemption code from their developer account. One code is generated per account, and the “purchase” is stored and associated with that account for any future re-downloads.

If you are a developer, and have access to the preview release, make sure you carefully check the system requirements before installing Lion; you’ll need a 64-bit Intel-based Mac running Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.6 or later. You will be able to install Lion on computers registered to your account but Apple recommends that you use a separate partition or a computer that is dedicated to Lion-only development.

Specific details about the new OS beyond Apple’s press releases remain behind the NDA wall. You may discuss the new OS on Apple’s developer forums.

Mac OS X Lion developer preview released originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 24 Feb 2011 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As expected, Apple has updated the MacBook Pro and given the lineup some significant upgrades. In brief, the lineup has seen significant processor updates, with Intel’s new “Sandy Bridge” processors standard throughout the lineup, including 13.3 model. AMD’s Radeon HD GPU has replaced the NVIDIA GeForce GT GPUs that powered the last-gen MacBook Pros; it will be interesting to see how this affects graphics performance once benchmarks come out.

The MacBook Pro does not have the rumored 16 GB SSD “boot drive” as a standard option. All models come with a traditional HDD in 320 or 500 GB size for the 13.3-inch model, 500 or 750 GB for the 15.4-inch and 750 GB for the 17-inch model. All HDDs are 5400 RPM drives. SSD drives are available as an option.

Thunderbolt, a new connection technology based on Intel’s “Light Peak,” has debuted in the MacBook Pro, the first notebook to feature this next-generation technology. Thunderbolt is a multi-purpose connector designed to produce transfer speeds well in excess of those offered by either FireWire or USB; Thunderbolt will transfer data at up to 10 Gbps, more than 12 times faster than FireWire 800.

In addition to these major updates, the MacBook Pro has seen some minor enhancements, too: the entire lineup has dropped in weight, and all models feature a slightly larger trackpad than before, and they include a ‘FaceTime HD’ camera versus the iSight of previous models. In all, the MacBook Pro’s updates have turned it into even more of a powerhouse than it was before. If you’ve been waiting for an update before pulling the trigger on your credit card, wait no longer. Pricing and tech specs are in the second half of this post.

Update: We were initially under the impression that the new MacBook Pros had dropped in weight and had larger trackpads, but this turned out to not be the case.

Continue reading MacBook Pro updated: Faster CPUs, Radeon HD, Thunderbolt, and more

MacBook Pro updated: Faster CPUs, Radeon HD, Thunderbolt, and more originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 24 Feb 2011 08:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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RoboSockets by Tatem Games is pretty impressive — it takes one of the oldest game genres out there, the falling blocks puzzle, and puts an interesting new spin on it. The idea is that you’re in charge of a far-away planet full of robots with only a little energy left in each, and you’ve got to chain them up together to power up and eventually save the planet. The robots (all square, of course) drop from the top of the screen, and you can drop them wherever you want. But they each have sockets that have to be connected, and once you connect five in a row, they’ll explode, providing you with power to finish the level.

It’s fun and well done — the sockets provide a nice bit of complexity, and special items and power-ups that come down as you go along mix up the gameplay well. The robots are cute and well-designed, and the music and art do a fine job of filling in the background. The tutorial is clear and simple (though some of the English is a little off — forgivable, as Tatem’s based in the Ukraine), and full Game Center integration is a nice bonus for sure.

RoboSockets is only US$0.99, too, so if you’re at all interested in the gameplay, it’s worth checking out. We’ll be talking with Tatem next week at GDC, I believe, so stay tuned for more on what we can expect from them in the future.

TUAW’s Daily App: RoboSockets originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 24 Feb 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Bad news: the Girl Scouts have discovered an easier way to sell you those dangerously delicious cookies, and it’s through an iPhone. Starting this year, the Girl Scouts of America will be taking payments for their annual cookie sales through Intuit’s GoPayment app, available on iOS. That means that if you fall apart and give in to that Samoa craving at the grocery store when the little girls keep bugging you, you could see your credit card information punched straight into Apple’s handheld. The organization is getting a break from Intuit on the credit card fees, and interested troops are getting a free reader to use during the cookie drive.

We’ve been seeing the iPhone used as a payment system in quite a few places, but outside of the Apple Store this will likely be one of the biggest tests of the solution so far. Just remember: while it might sound nice to have a Thin Mint box or two right now, those things disappear fast once you actually start eating them. Use and consume at your own risk.

[via 9to5Mac]

Girl Scouts using iPhones to sell cookies now originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 24 Feb 2011 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple’s online store is currently offline. This isn’t entirely unexpected; rumors have swirled around for weeks suggesting that the MacBook Pro is due to get a big upgrade, including faster CPUs and a new high-speed connection technology based on Intel’s “Light Peak.” Supposedly, Apple will call this new technology “Thunderbolt,” and it will deliver connection speeds far faster than USB or FireWire.

We’ll keep an eye on the store and let you know what we find when it comes back up.

The Apple Store is down, new MacBook Pros inbound? originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 24 Feb 2011 05:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve covered RedEye’s IR dongle for the iPhone a few times. Originally, it was introduced as a complete add-on for the iPhone that allowed you to control any entertainment center reached by infrared. Over time RedEye has pushed to simplify the unit more and more, instead providing a cheaper and smaller experience.

Now the company has done that again. While the original iOS app offered a lot of different customization and functionality, the new RedEye mini app offers a straightforward TV remote experience. It’s free, like the full app, but instead of having to customize everything exactly the way you want it, you can get a simple channel changer and volume control to use on your iPhone.

It’s been interesting to watch companies like this learning what Apple already knows: while power and customization definitely drives part of your audience, the real way to sell a product is to make it easy to use for anybody who picks it up. I’m sure some people prefer the more complex, self-designed system (myself included), but if you want to aim for a larger market, simple and easy is often best.

RedEye launches mini app for IR plugin originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 24 Feb 2011 00:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve had an iPhone app for DirecTV for quite a while now. It allows you to program your DVR directly from your smartphone, and it works well enough. Now, the satellite giant has announced an iPad app that will do the DVR programming, but also allow you to control your TV, customize the program guide, check sports scores and easily find programs you want to see.

With the extra real estate on the iPad screen, DirecTV can offer a much richer experience than the iPhone app, and from the preview on the DirecTV site, it looks like a great option for customers. Using the standard DirecTV remote to find programs is pretty painful, because navigating the onscreen keyboard involves lots of clicks and easy frustration.

There’s no delivery date for the app, which will be free. DirecTV says it will be “soon.” One catch: DirecTV says you’ll need a certain receiver and remote to use some of the services, and it sounds like the connection will be made on a local Wi-Fi network. The fine print also suggests that “in rare instances, scheduled recordings may not be recognized,” so the system may not be quite ready to completely depend on. Still, when you just want to make a few changes using a little better UI, the iPad app should serve. We’ll keep an eye out for it.

DirecTV announces remote control app coming soon to iPad originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 23 Feb 2011 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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