Apple’s Magic Mouse, introduced via simple press release on October 20, is the latest point-and-click peripheral for the Mac, and the latest showcase for Apple’s multi-touch technology, first introduced in the iPhone and later the iPod touch. While the iPhone is still the premiere multi-touch experience in consumer electronics, however, Apple’s modern history of mice has been… poor to mediocre. The hockey puck that shipped with the original iMac was goofy, the one-button Mighty Mouse hard to second-click with and prone to gunked up scroll balls.
Does the Magic Mouse work an iPhone-level spell, or is it just more of the middling? TiPb takes a look after the break!
Join Chad and Rene for Google Maps Navigation, Droid Day! Windows 7, iPhone marketshare, future iPhones, Verizon wants iPhone, more iTablet rumors, blackra1n RC2, and all the news. Listen in!
Today’s the day — the iPhone officially launches in China on China Unicom. We say officially because it’s been available unofficially, in gray market form, since the original iPhone 2G was launched, and with winks and nudges via Apple’s unlocked sales in Taiwan and Hong Kong.
So will international sales tumble as the world’s biggest market can buy it at home? Will Chinese sales lag in favor of sticking with the unofficial versions from overseas or future Chinese versions that, you know, include Wi-Fi? Or will iPhone numbers just continue to grow, grow, grow?
As usual, the race to hype this dispute as a bitter standoff between two tech giants desperate to destroy one another has all but ignored the reality of how patents — especially wireless patents — are licensed, what Nokia’s actually asking for, and how it might go about getting it. And as you know, we just don’t do things that way, so we’ve asked our old friend Mathew Gavronski, a patent attorney in the Chicago office of Michael Best & Friedrich, to help us sort things out and figure out what’s really going on here — read on for more.
In a nutshell, Nokia believes Apple is infringing on 10 patents that are core to GSM/UTMS/Wi-Fi. All the other major players have paid up. Apple hasn’t. Apple may believe the patent fees are already paid by the manufacturer of the components they bought for the iPhone, or they may just be using the legal system as way to negotiate a lower ultimate licensing fee from Nokia.
If the area interests you, check out the whole analysis and then let us know what you think!
According to Business Insider, the mythical iTablet is imminent due to the unnamed, unverified, unspecified travel of someone at Apple who does… something:
a source tells us a system integration engineer friend of his at Apple has been ramping up his travels back and forth between China lately, broadcasting word of his travels over the Internet.
A friend of a friend — no names! — asked TiPb what will end up being more ridiculous, iPhone rumors or iTablet rumors. We answered — yes!
Anyone have an iTablet case (with or without camera hole!) they want to leak our way?
To go along with the shiny new iTunes 9.0.2 and Apple TV 3.0 software released today, Apple has also bumped their Remote app [Free - iTunes link] to version 1.3.2, which:
“provides bug fixes and compatibility with iTunes 9 and Apple TV 3″
If you have an Apple TV and haven’t tried the latest version of Apple’s Remote app, download load it and do it. The lag for Wi-Fi to connect between sessions is annoying (though you can disable auto-lock, burn battery, and stay connected if you choose), but using the iPhone or iPod touch as a slick touch surface controller… gesture bliss.
AppleInsider is reporting that the car kit will not be compatible with the iPod touch and first-generation iPhone 2G. This is a complete turn around from early reports from TomTom claiming since the car kit contained it’s own GPS, you could indeed use the TomTom App Store software/car kit combo with an iPod Touch and first-generation iPhone.
TomTom’s car kit for iPhone has been in the news countless times the past few months and here it is once again. This news should sadden many iPod touch/First-generation iPhone 2G owners who have been waiting for this often delayed accessory to be released. It was first slated to come out this past summer, which was then pushed back to October and now will not be shipped until November.
“The new software for Apple TV features a simpler and faster interface that gives you instant access to your favorite content,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of Internet Services. “HD movies and HD TV shows from iTunes have been a huge hit with Apple TV customers, and with Apple TV 3.0 they get great new features including iTunes Extras, Genius Mixes and Internet radio.”
It also looks like Apple has (finally!) done right and — like every other product — moved user content above for-sale content. That’s right, it looks like our videos and music, and not iTunes Store stuff, is on top, baby!
I’m downloading it now and will be back later with my thoughts, but if you’re already rocking it, roll a comment our way and let us know what you think!
Apple this afternoon released a point update to iTunes, bringing the latest version to 9.0.2.
iTunes 9.0.2 adds support for Apple TV software version 3.0, adds an option for a dark background for Grid View, and improves support for accessibility.
Needless to say, according to our friends at PreCentral.net, it also kills Palm Pre webOS sync dead. Again.
Check Apple’s Software Update to get your copy, and let us know if you find any other goodies!
Streaming music has gotten pretty popular among iPhone owners and today we’d like to introduce you to one more option, Lala.
Lala gives you the ability to listen to any song for free one time. If you happen to like the song you pay $0.10 for unlimited listening. And at $0.10 per “Web Song” you can pretty much purchase a full album for a single dollar. That may not convince all of you but Lala has one more trick up it’s sleeve — you can upload your entire music library from your computer to the cloud for you to stream back to your iPhone, completely free. Lose you data connection for some reason? No worries as Lala uses caching to save your music. Exactly how much is cached is not known just yet but it’s a nice feature regardless.
This is definitely an app worth taking a closer look at when it hits the App Store. It should be free to download and you can expect to see it available within the next few weeks.
