Macgasm

Apple’s had their fair share of annoyed customers over the last year, and it seems like they’re about to make a couple of people happy by addressing the iPhone 4 proximity sensor problem. According to reports, a lot of developers are noticing that the proximity sensor issue has been patched with iOS 4.1 beta 2. However, reports are varied.

The fine folks over at MacRumors are noting that 4.1 beta 2 doesn’t address the proximity issues, while other more notorious blogs are suggesting that the issue has been addressed. I personally don’t have access to the iPhone 4 yet, and I’m not in the developer program, so I can’t verify if this has been addressed.

But, given Gizmodo’s recent panache for anti-apple rhetoric, it comes as a bit of surprise that they’re stating that the issue has been patched. We’re inclined to believe them. If it wasn’t fixed, they would have been the first to let us know with a big flamboyant headline.

Image Credit: Rob Goodlatte

It’s no surprise that Apple was planning on releasing a Safari extension gallery: we heard the news back on July 13th. What we didn’t expect was that they were so close to releasing that gallery. Today, along with an update to Safari, which brings the application to 5.0.1, Apple has opened up their extension library.

Given the fact that both FireFox and Chrome have massive extension libraries, it was only a matter of time before Apple launched a similar program. If you’re not sure what an extension is, essentially it’s a nifty little plugin that lets you extend the functionality of your browser. For instance, I’ve installed an extension called Feedly. The extension lets me read my RSS feeds in a format I feel comfortable with. We’ve covered a few other ones in the past, so if you’re interested in checking out some of our recommendations, go check them out.

It’s also important to note that Apple’s gallery is a curated list, so you’re not going to see every single extension available.  They’ve picked over the options, and are giving you what they think are the best extensions available.  If you’re looking for an alternative to Apple’s gallery you can also get a great deal of information on extensions from this awesome Tumblr website.

If you’re a Mac user, I’m sure that you’re hip to the jive that is TextEdit. It goes above and beyond what it’s name leads you to believe, but it isn’t a panacea. Sometimes you need a little more control over your text, but you don’t have a need to pay for Apple’s Pages or Microsoft’s Word. You don’t have to work with the Java behemoth that is Sun/Oracle’s OpenOffice either. There is a small, powerful word processor available for free: Bean.

It reads and writes almost any text file format you can think of from the last two decades. TXT and RTF are par for the course, but it also works with formats such as DOC, DOCX, ODT, and WEBARCHIVE. Large scale compatibility woes are a thing of the past. At the very least, you’ll be able to get the text from any file thrown your way. It might not render the text exactly the same as Word or Pages, but that is small potatoes in my opinion. When you’re on a deadline, small visual quirks are the least of your problems.

It is incredibly customizable, and it has a few really great features. Full screen mode allows you to write without distraction. Dictionary.app integration and auto-completion lets you finish your work faster than ever. Most importantly, it has fine-tune text manipulation tools that allow you to make your text look exactly the way you want. This is a very slick, professional Mac application available for no cost. It’s hard to believe that Microsoft has been working so hard to make Word for OS X work and look like a Mac app should, and these folks have already accomplished that, and they aren’t even asking for your money.

Don’t like your carrier in Canada? No problem, Apple’s going to be releasing the iPhone 4 unlocked. It’s going to be a little steep upfront, coming in at $659, but you’ll be saving directly in the long run.

This is great news for the competition. Currently in Canada Rogers, Bell, Fido, and Telus all have access to the phone, but there’ve been a number of startups that have been locked out of the market. Companies such as Wind Mobile offer excellent plans, and others offer contract-free services, but up until now your phone selection was severely limited. With the iPhone 4 you’ll be able to use your phone on any GSM network, giving you access to a lot of new startups. The one we’re most interested in is Mobilicity, which isn’t currently available in my town, but is on their coming soon list.

We’re pretty excited about it. As soon as my contract is up with Rogers I’m going to be exploring some of these options in depth, and now that I can take my iPhone with me, I’ll be able to do it a lot sooner. Heck, I might just buy an iPhone 4 now.

Article Via CBC News

Image Credit: Yutaka Tsutano

What an exciting morning for Apple! New Magic Trackpad, new Battery Charger, and the rumblings of a possible refresh to iLife.

If that weren’t enough, Apple unveiled some speedy new iMac and Mac Pro models.

Starting with the iMac

The Intel Core i3 and i5 processors have been incorporated into the two 21.5 inch and 27 inch models, with an available option of the smoking fast 2.93GHz Quad-Core i7 processor in the top-end 27in model.

The graphics cards have been improved too. The iMacs are still using the high quality products from ATI Radeon, now ranging from 256MB, 512MB and 1GB of on-board GDDR3 memory.

Default memory has, in the past, been something many of us would like to see bumped up, and for these iMacs the default starts at a reasonable 4GB of RAM upgradeable to 8GB for the 21.5 inch models and 16GB for the 27 inch models.

What about the Mac Pro

For the serious user needing power, speed, and high-end display capabilities, the Mac Pro will not disappoint.

There are two models, each powered by one or two of the Intel Nehalem 2.66GHz Quad-Core processors.

3GB or 6GB of RAM as the default for each model that can be upgraded to a total of 16GB or 32GB.

These are exciting updates to the Mac lineup – in perfect time for back-to-school shopping!

The iPad’s getting iOS 4 this fall.  That’s not news in any way, shape, or form, but how Apple plans on implementing it still hold some intrigue for those of us who are curious. Is it going to be a carbon copy of the iPhone version? Will there be things slightly different from the iPhone implementation? We have no idea, but we’d certainly like to see some extra attention given to the iPad release, and Patrick over at Just Another iPad Blog has a similar opinion after spending some time with iOS 4: twelve applications in a group just isn’t enough.

I’ll be the first to admit that this could be one of those journalist-only problems, but I can’t state enough how annoyed I am with having upwards of four gaming folders on my iPhone. The miniturized icons help a lot, but it would go a long way in keeping my phone tidy if only Apple would bump the application number in folders on both the iPhone and iPad. Patrick’s thought on the iPad: “Bigger device, bigger app icons, bigger screen–so bigger folders should work well I reckon.” We agree, and hopefully Apple’s going to do something about it between now and release.

So what do you think? Should Apple give us more applications in our folders on the iPad? What about on the iPhone? I personally wouldn’t mind seeing it increased for both devices.

Article Via Just Another iPad Blog

Photo Credit: BrianJMatis

I’m all for enthusiasts being able to hack their iPhones and Jailbreak the hell out of them. Telling people what they can or can’t do with the devices they purchase isn’t something that I think anyone should have a say in, outside of the person who bought the thing.

Today Jailbreakers in the US of A let out a collective sigh of relief when the U.S. government announced that it is officially legal for iPhone owners to “jailbreak their devices.” I personally don’t jailbreak my phones, I can’t be bothered, but a lot of my close friends do, and I’m glad they can. Being locked into a particular system because a corporation tells you that you have to be is a little bit much, even for me.

That being said, I don’t believe Apple should be on the hook to replace these devices should something go wrong with a jailbreak. Jailbreaking comes with a level of caution, and should you brick your phone, you should be on your own. Rumours last week, which have since been debunked, said that Apple was going to be watermarking phones with information that would let them know if a phone had been jailbroken in the past. Hopefully no one at Apple read those ideas, because now that it’s legal to Jailbreak your iPhone, executives at Apple might be scrambling for a way to determine if people are messing with devices.

You can now legally Jailbreak, but I wouldn’t expect support from Apple for much longer.

News on carrier unlocks

Another major point in the announcement today points out that consumers have the right to have their phones unlocked for use on carriers of their choice, despite contracts between carriers and phone producers for exclusivity. We’re not sure how this one’s going to play out, but we can see people jumping to other carriers in the US a lot faster than AT&T would like. T-Mobile on the other hand probably rejoiced when they heard the news.

What Jailbreaking doesn’t mean: stealing apps.

You do not have any right to illegally pirate software on any device, Jailbroken phones included. We’ll neither provide information on how to do this, nor will we entertain questions or comments on the topic. Developers work extremely hard trying to bring us innovative new applications, and condoning something that takes the food out of their cupboards is not something we’ll do. It’s down right disgusting that blogs have decided to give step by step tutorials on how to do this today. Maybe they don’t understand the legislation, or maybe they’re just fishing for hits, either way, it’s wrong. That’s all I have to say about that.

Article via AppleInsider

Photo Credit: Maique

Image Via: http://hahasatmaya.blogspot.com

The rumor mill is buzzing today about a possible next release of the iLife productivity suite.

iLife 09, which includes iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, GarageBand, and iWeb, and is bundled with every new Mac, was last updated back in early 2009.

The Faces and Places functionality that was introduced at that time was, and still is pretty cool, but we Apple fans are always hungry and it’s time for something new.

According to Mac4Ever.com, there could be an iLife refresh as early as August 7, 2010 which could include some significant changes:

• All applications will be 64-bit
• Improvements in iPhoto Faces & Places
• Improving the integration of social networks
• iWeb will be totally renewed
• New application (mystery!)
• Disappearance of iDVD that will be downloaded (like iMovie HD)
• MobileMe gallery in beta (with Faces & Places)

The guesstimated price would be $79. These are some bold predictions, but as always let the comments flow with your thoughts!