Macgasm

If you’re a wood lover, and we’re pretty sure some of you are, you’ll probably love the Trunket iPhone 4 case. They only use the highest quality wood, and no two are exactly alike. The variations cause each piece to be unique and individually beautiful.

Hey, don’t get all up in arms on me, I’m just quoting their website here.

Jokes aside, the $24 iPhone 4 case looks pretty sleek, and comes in a variety of different wood types. The Bridgeport, CT company hand-crafts the cases, and personally I like the jet black rosewood model (in the image).

Article Via Trunket

This one’s kind of a burn on us, and everyone who’s reading this post, but I figured I’d share it anyway. If you can’t laugh, you cry, really, really hard. Hey, at least I can still feel my arm, right?

Although I’m not exactly sure what the joke is here. I mean, outside of the literalisms, where’s the punch line? I can’t feel my arm? Is that it? It almost sounds like the writer’s one of us, and unable to fully drop a bombshell on the Apple community.

Anyone know if Scott Adams is a Mac user?

Personally I prefer this Dilbert Cartoon.

Article Via Dilbert

Apple released iTunes 10 on September 1st. This new version brings us several new updates and bug fixes along with some impressive new features like AirPlay, TV show rentals, and of course, Ping. In this screencast we provide an overview of some of these new features and enhancements. We show you how to use AirPlay to stream music to compatible devices on your network, tell you what Ping is all about, and more.

When Walt Mossberg talks, people listen. Hopefully Paul Thurrott catches this episode of Mossberg’s video podcast, because Mossberg clearly points out just how easy it is to replace a laptop with an iPad. Mossberg and his wife took off for Paris on a working vacation, and he’s pretty positive about how the iPad held up on a “lighter” business trip.

Instead of typing out what he says, I’m just going to attach the video below. Give it a watch. It’s pretty interesting.

I tend to agree. I’ve been taking my iPad on road trips myself, and frankly, it has replaced my laptop.  It’s smaller, lighter, and easier to use while on the go.

If you use FileMaker on your Mac or PC, you’ll definitely want to check out FileMaker Go 1.1 for the iPhone and the iPad. It allows you to read and modify the most complex and unique databases while away from your desk, and this latest release makes it even better.

The biggest feature of 1.1 from my point of view is the ability to import data from other applications. When I spoke to the FileMaker staff earlier in the week, they used barcode reading as an example. FileMaker Go doesn’t have a barcode reader built into the application, but the update allows other iOS applications to pass data along. Now pretty much any data you want can be represented in FileMaker Go. Pretty sweet, huh?

The iPhone and iPod Touch version of the app is only $19.99 USD. At the same time, the iPad-specific version will run you $39.99 USD. That said, Bento iPhone and iPad apps are only $4.99 USD each. If you don’t need any crazy advanced features, I’d recommend using Bento instead. It’s simpler and cheaper.

If you want all of the gory detail, you can download the press release [PDF]

If you use any of the iWork apps on your iPad you’re going to want to run your updates. Apple’s released updates to Pages, Numbers, and Keynote. It seems like all three applications now have the ability to copy documents both to and from MobileMe iDisks and other WebDAV based services.

Also available in the update is the ability to export documents to both Microsoft Excel(.xls) and PowerPoint (.ppt) formats, giving users the ability to use the iPad for document creation, and then Microsoft’s Office Suite on other devices.

We get enough requests to send .Doc files these days to really appreciate Apple’s decision to include the changes to their export features.

In addition to the Microsoft Office support, Apple’s also added the ability to include TXT files from Mail.app, and the ability to export as well as import footnotes, endnotes, and table of contents to the desktop versions.

Article Via The Loop

Would 99-cent television show rentals devalue episodes from the major studios? That’s what NBC is worrying about these days, and it’s likely the major reason why they’ve yet to sign on with Apple’s plan to rent individual TV shows. Jeff Zucker came right out and said it, but we’re still trying to figure out just how paying for an NBC product would be devaluing it.

To Zucker, President and CEO of NBC Universal, 99 cents is far too cheap for them to consider. The hilarious part about this whole thing is that there’s a huge number of people out there looking to make the move from streaming NBC TV shows illegally online to purchasing them in a pay-per-view type scenario. People want to go legit, and if the price is right, people have no problem paying for the content. Make it easy on everyone and they’ll pay you with real money. It’s that simple, and yet somehow NBC just can’t grasp it.

When was the last time you looked at your cable bill and said to yourself, “You know what, I’m getting a good deal here.” It doesn’t happen, because traditional television bundles are a giant pile of crap. I would say once every couple of years a television show comes along that’s worth watching. It’s mostly crap, and it’s barely worth 99 cents an episode as it stands. So maybe the first step for NBC here is to take a step back and stop overvaluing what they do.

It’s pretty interesting to hear Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg talk about what he thinks is happening in the television industry, and hopefully Zucker sat in on his talk, because if anyone has first hand knowledge about how technology can change your business model, it’s Seidenberg.

“I think cable has some life left in its model… but that it is going to get disintermediated over the next several years…I’ve seen the movie. If you remain static too long, the technology is going to nibble at you on the edges, and you have to be prepared for it.”

NBC better prepare themselves because I don’t think I’m the only person who has been thinking about cancelling my cable entirely.  You have to be in it to win it, and not being available on devices where we’re consuming media means a giant loss for NBC.

Article Via The Apple Blog

Getting your hands on brand new Apple gear immediately seems to get more difficult every single year. Just yesterday I was at the Apple Store trying to track one of these new models, but I found myself leaving empty handed. So, it comes as great news that people who pre-ordered the new Apple TVs are starting to have their credit cards charged. Well, according to Cult of Mac, anyway.

So, if you’ve been waiting to try out the new Apple TV, or you’re a Canadian who can’t wait to see how the newly released Netflix works on it, if at all, there’s hope yet. The Apple TV should be shipping to doors everywhere soon. It looks like we’ll be making a trip to the Apple Store again in the next week or so, which isn’t exactly unusual these days. I’m starting to feel like I live there.

Article Via Cult of Mac

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