Recently, I have done a great deal of contemplation on the possible ramifications for our subculture when Steve steps down for good. I would be surprised if he left Apple any time soon, but it is an inevitability that he will one day retire, and leave us Jobsless.
Let’s just ignore the business side of the predicament for now. What will it do to us? What will it mean for everything our culture has built? In my heart of hearts, I don’t think it will be as bad as we imagine it to be. Steve is an amazing person who has given us more than we could ever dream, but when he leaves Apple, he won’t be leaving a group of idiot know-nothings. He will be leaving an Apple filled to the brim with smart, creative people that believe in executing on ideas in a Jobsian manner.
One day we will no longer have Steve to steer the ship, but we’ll have a crew of brilliant navigators. Provided that we trust Steve to make good decisions on who to hire, we’ll be in good hands. This won’t be like the last time we lost Steve from Apple. This will be on his terms. We will have Steve’s version of Apple for a long, long time. Anyone who is betting against that better be investing with someone else’s money.
The very cool people over at App Sumo have partnered with us to give away five copies of their latest bundle. That is four seperate apps for free to five lucky Macgasm readers. Here they are:
Vitamin-R
TaskPaper
Arrange
Backblaze Online Backup
If you’re interested in winning this very snazzy bundle, all you have to do is follow @macgasm on twitter, and then post a link to your twitter profile in the comment section of this post. At a later date, Josh will be picking five eligible candidates at random. We’ll be in contact if you win.
If you’d like to just purchase this bundle right now, it’s only $15 USD. Either way, it’s a great deal.
Like all rumors that we post, this one should be taken with a grain of salt. Slashgear has started to publicly speculate that the new preview image that was found in iOS 4.2 beta 2 could actually have a giant tell about when Apple will announce the new iPad 2.
The icons in this particular preview not only show FaceTime, Camera, and PhotoBooth apps, but it also shows the date on the iCal icon as being February 9th.
Apparently the preview image found before the first iPad announcement also showed the exact announcement day (January 27th).
It’s also likely that the date is no coincidence, should the rumor turn out to be true. HP is planning a webOS event for February 9th. According to Slashgear, HP is expected to announce some webOS tablets that day.
It certainly sounds like something Apple might do, but I guess we won’t know the veracity of this rumor until Apple actually send out event invites.
iFixit has not only released the awesome video (attached below), but they have also put together an iPhone liberation kit that includes tools to get rid of the Pentalobe screws altogether as well as tools to replace the screws with something a little more standard.
Normally this isn’t something that most of us would get annoyed about, but what’s different this time around is finding a screw driver that actually removes the pentalobe screws. Tracking down the proper driver isn’t something that you’ll have an easy time doing. Apple screwed iPhone 4 users by using a screw that’s almost impossible to remove unless you have Apple’s blessing.
Most people I know have no business pulling apart their iPhone 4s. I can understand why Apple’s made it difficult to take apart the device, but that also means that Apple thinks that we don’t have the right to tamper with a device that we outright own.
I’m a big fan of Apple, obviously, but these types of things are where I draw the line. It’s pretty clear that Apple’s trying to limit the number of repairs that they have to carry out on devices that were tampered with, and broken by, the hands of users, but that doesn’t mean they have the right to lock us out of electronics that we own.
We own these phones, and if I want to take it apart a million times and put it back together again, I can. What I don’t expect is Apple to fix it when I break it.
Starbucks are real stars in the app world. They are now accepting payments at outlets in the U.S. through their free iPhone app.
About eight months back, Starbucks had a pilot program that was expanded from Seattle and Silicon Valley to all of their caffeine dispensing outlets. With this app, you can pay for your coffee addiction just by using the app. Check out the video below to watch the magic happen.
The app is actually linked to your Starbucks account card which will display a unique barcode just for your account. You only need to point this barcode at the scanner and it will take out the funds. This is a pretty great idea because it means that it won’t be waving your payment details around via WiFi or Bluetooth. Because of that, I think it will mean more people will take it up for a try because often it is security issues or payment transactions where people get nervous.
If this all does work as seamless as it appears to, I’m sure that it will actually increase their customer base a fair bit. I know I would feel more likely to have loyalty to a company that has made it so easy to pay. Please roll this out to other countries!
One week after posting the first beta of iOS 4.3, Apple has published a second beta. This seed is 8F5153d, replacing last week’s 8F5148b. Like before, there is no support for the iPhone 3G or second-gen iPod touch.
Interestingly, according to Mac Stories, the new gestures are going to be staying in beta for some time:
This beta release contains a preview of new multitasking gestures for iPad. You can use four or five fingers to pinch to the Home Screen, swipe up to reveal the multitasking bar, and swipe left or right between apps. This feature will not be enabled in iOS 4.3 for customers, but we are providing this preview to gather input on how these gestures work with your apps.
My guess it that the iPad 2 and iPhone 5 will include hardware support for these features, and that Apple is just preparing developers for them a little early.
The Apple TV build has been updated as well, for developers to test AirPlay with their apps.
As always, updating a device to a beta version of iOS is a one-way street, with downgrading not possible.
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January 20, 2011
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