Macgasm

Macotakara has claimed that Apple is getting ready to re-introduce their current lineup with Macs that are “absolutely different from current products” by the end of the year. Actually, the quote is a little bit hard to understand, considering it was originally written in Japanese. Google Translate has revealed the following translation:

There’s a lot of keywords that we should pay attention to in the original article, but I’d be lying if I said that we didn’t have to guess at what they were trying to say.

Revamped Macs have been rumored to be on the way for almost a year now, but the only thing customers have seen is bumps in specifications along the way. Leading up to the release of Thunderbolt equipped Macs, many sites were also reporting that Apple was going to release a slimmer and revamped Mac Pro. It hasn’t come to fruition just yet, and it still pops up in the rumor mill from time to time.

Apple has gone on record stating that all of their laptop models will take on the look and feel of the newly updated MacBook Air, but that has yet to happen. We wouldn’t be surprised if Apple reintroduced the MacBook Pro as a thinner, lighter edition. It’s almost expected.

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Rockstar has announced a new Grand Theft Auto, but before you take to the streets with wide-eyed celebration, it’s less exciting than you think. Mac fans can now play the iconic GTA III by downloading it directly from Apple’s App Store.

Widely considered as the granddaddy of open-world gaming, GTA III was a monumental title. If you’re one of the few people who still hasn’t played the 2001 game, you can now download it for a fairly hefty price of $14.99.

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Gamescom took place last week (the massive European version of America’s E3) and with it all sorts of gaming announcements occurred. One that happened to sneak under the ‘mainstream radar,’ yet was by no means without significance to Simulation fans, was the reveal of Theme Park iOS.

Yes, taking its inspiration from the 1994 Bullfrog title (back before EA destroyed the studio), Theme Park is a 3D iOS title with free-to-play elements. It’ll have various themes, ranging from Pirate, Organic (your guess is as good as mine), and Futuristic. Expect plenty of gravity bending rides and people puking all over the park’s paths.

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As we pass by the week of August 15th we get one week closer to a new iPhone. By the look of our stats you guys are hot for it. Joshua brought you a rumor of iPhone 4 stock reductions. Josh showed us a photo that may or may not show an elongated home button on the next iPhone. Joshua puts the ranting Lion guy on the site, comedy ensues in our comments. I was pleased to see you all liked Susan’s OlloClip review as much as I did. Last you all loved Marco’s post on Valve bringing us a follow up of Counter Strike. Hope you all are having a fantastic weekend, and as always, thanks for reading!

• Rumor: iPhone 4 stock to be scaled back for iPhone 5 by mid-September
• Rumor: iPhone 5 images leaked from factory, show possible elongated home button
• Down on Lion? Watch this awesome OS X Lion review
• Olloclip: The perfect lens set for every iPhoneographer
• Valve announces Counter Strike: Global Offensive

And now for some news that only developers will be pissed about. It appears that Apple has depreciated the code that almost every iOS app uses to keep track of devices using their apps.

The UDID is a unique ID assigned to every iOS device. Developers were able to make use of this ID to differentiate devices, especially when a single user uses multiple devices. That feature will be going bye bye with the upcoming release of iOS5, leaving developers scrambling to find an alternative before launch.

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Apple has seeded iOS5 beta 6 to developers, less than 2 weeks after beta 5 hit the streets. This release gap closing obviously means we are getting close, and typically means we are done seeing new shiny features until the GM release.

If you are a registered iOS developer, you can get iOS5 beta 6 legally in the dev center, or OTA directly to your device if you are running beta 4 or above.

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The Macgasm weekly rewind focuses on our original content and reviews that you may have missed the week starting August 15th.

Happy Saturday my fellow geeks! Do you all have big weekend plans? No? Well, have no fear. I have a few posts you can catch up on. On this week’s video podcast the brothers Schnell are on a roof. The only thing that is keeping Josh from looking like a homeless man is his pristine white shorts. Eugene joins Josh for our audio podcast. Marco reviews a cute little game called Dream Track Nation. Susan reviews the Olloclip, which might possibly be one of the coolest accessories for the iPhone that I have ever seen. Last up I feature Matt’s Macintosh on Flickr Find Friday, yes, again. And just like that you went from nothing to do to a few hours worth of fun, even more if you buy Dream Track Nation.

• Video Podcast: The Thule (TAS-115) MacBook case, and Peel 520
• Podcast: Quick, get Motorola on the line!
• Dream Track Nation: A review
• Olloclip: The perfect lens set for every iPhoneographer
• Flicker Find Friday: Newton eMate 300

If you know me, you’ll know that I’m a fangirl of Matt’s Macintosh. Amazing photography, videos and a deep love for Apple history. Doesn’t hurt that he could be one of the nicest guys on YouTube (he still answers almost everyone in the comments, even if he’s answered the same question 800 times before). Here he shows us Apple’s last iteration of the Newton, the eMate 300. It was the only Newton to have a built-in keyboard. It’s entirely adorable in it’s translucent green plastic, and has a handle (inspiration for those early iBook G3s no doubt). I know we have featured Matt before, but if he keeps loading the goods, I’ll keep featuring him. If you want to take Matt out of my favs for Flickr Find Friday posts, you know what to do… load up those pics to our Flicker group.

Photo Credit: Matt’s Macintosh

Do you want to be a photographer or just play one on the web? Here’s your chance! Join Macgasm’s Flickr group and upload all your beauty shots of your Apple gear. Each week we select one lucky participant to be featured on Flickr Find Friday. Go join our Flickr Group now. Get creative. Upload up to 7 pics a day. Tune in on Fridays (like you ever miss a post, right?) and see if you have what it takes to be featured. Good luck and happy snapping.