Edible Apple

This isn’t related to Apple but is too hilarious to pass up. If you don’t already watch Parks and Recreation, get on it, Son. Hell, who cares if they subliminally support Windows, this is some grade A hilarity in full effect. The clip below is from the recent “Soulmates” episode where Tom Haverford, played by Aziz Ansari, goes out with Leslie Knope, played by Amy Poheler. Here is Tom talking about all his slang – from apps and zerts to forks and cars, he’s got hilarious lingo for days.

AT&T in late March purchased T-Mobile from Deutsche Telekom in a deal worth $39 billion. Now we don’t wanna go ahead and jump to conclusions, but with AT&T the exclusive iPhone carrier for years before Verizon came around, it was only natural for some to speculate that the iPhone would be coming to T-Mobile sometime soon.

And, lo and behold, BGR this past weekend, thanks to the Boy Genius Jonathan Geller himself, was able to procure spy shots of a white iPhone that appears to be running on T-Mobile’s US 3G network.

Note that the iPhone in question is internal model N94. This is telling, maybe, because the internal model for the iPhone 4 GSM was N90 (which you might remember from the whole Gizmodo/iPhone fiasco) while the model number for the CDMA iPhone 4 was N92. So could we be looking at the iPhone 5?

Nah, not likely at all. For starters, there’s no larger screen to be had, and second, Apple has reportedly not even begun ordering component parts for the iPhone 5. Still, the iPhone 4 coming to T-Mobile is a huge piece of news for those T-Mobilers who aren’t of the jailbreaking variety. Of course, if this comes to be, that would leave Sprint as the sole carrier in the US without the iPhone under their stable.

You’ll also note that the device is running test such as Radar and Apple’s employee directory app. Also evident is a lock screen similar to what one finds on Android.

Continue Reading

This is an obviously, no-question-about-it fake video purporting to show Steve Jobs practicing the introduction of the iPhone 5.

Written by Sarah Petit:

There’s no mistaking that President Obama is a Mac. While on the campaign trail in 2008, the Obama campaign relied on Macs heavily, and upon being elected, Obama’s staffers lamented the fact that the White House was littered with old and outdated PCs.

Recently, Obama was asked if he owned an iPad during a town hall meeting held in Washington, to which Obama replied:

I do have an iPad,” Obama replied, joking later about also having his own computer.

“I mean, Jorge, I’m the president of the United States,” Obama said. “You think I’ve got to go borrow somebody’s computer?” said Obama to laughter. “Hey, man, can I borrow your computer? How about you? You’ve got one?”

But for weeks, the question raged: Did Obama have the original iPad or the iPad 2?

Well fret no longer, gentle readers. Not only does Obama have an iPad 2, but he also uses Apple’s Smart Cover as well. The photo above is an official White House photo taken on April 6, 2011 as Obama walks to Marine One following a town hall meeting in Fairless Hills, Pa.

And here’s Obama circa 2008 with his MacBook Pro.

HT: 9to5Mac

So we’ve gone from the iPhone 5 to the iPhone 4S. M.I.C Gadget today posted two photosof a device they’re affectionately calling the iPhone 4S. Like previous reports, the photos showcase a larger edge-to-edge screen which has been a long rumored feature of the next-gen iPhone. Recently, though, there have been inconsistent reports as to the screen size on the upcoming iPhone. While many outlets, including the WSJ, have indicated the iPhone 5 will come with a 4-inch screen, Joshua Topolsky late last week wrote that the iPhone 5 will sport a 3.7-inch screen.

The images obtained by M.I.C Gadget – and note that even they question the authenticity of the photos – seem to indicate a screen size closer to 3.7-inches than 4.

Some interesting iPhone 5 rumors for a Friday afternoon ya’ll. Joshua Topolsky, who formerly served as the editor in chief at Engadget, writes for This is my Next that he’s received information regarding the next-gen iPhone and its supposed new form factor.

As the mockup above indicates, Topolsky writes that the image was drawn up up based on information extracted from a number of sources. Specifically, the iPhone 5 will reportedly take on a new form factor similar to the recently re-designed MacBook Air. What that means is a tapered style hardware design that gets slimmer from top to bottom.

You’ll also note that the home button area is expanded and now serves a dual purpose – first as the home button we all know and love and purportedly as a gesture area. You might also notice that the screen sports the same edge-to-edge design that we’ve been hearing rumblings about as well. Topolsky’s sources weren’t entirely sure as to the dimensions of the screen, but the sketches supplied to him suggest a 3.7-inch screen while maintaining the current iPhone 4’s resolution, which subsequently means a drop of 13 pixels per inch down to 312, still enough to maintain Apple’s criteria for a Retina Display (anything above 300 ppi).

While the art we’ve seen shows some form of inductive or touch charging, our sources can’t confirm whether or not Apple’s working on its own version of cable-free juicing. There’s also a “swipe area” shown in the drawing which appears to be on the bottom and / or top of the device — that could very well be an NFC point, but that’s pure speculation on our part.

Okay, a few things here.

First, let’s not jump to conclusions. While Topolsky and his Engadget cohorts were quite adept at delivering Apple scoops, their track record is far from spotless. To wit, Engadget’s iPad 2 predictions involving an SD card slot and a Retina Display were nowhere to be found.

Furthermore, while there have been a number of rumors suggesting Apple is busy working on a brand new iPhone design, most reports we’ve seen (and sourced from purportedly more reliable sources than folks supplying sketch drawings) indicate that the iPhone 5 will sport a similar form factor to the iPhone 4. Moreover, the mockup above seems awfully similar to user-generated iPhone mockups we’ve seen floating around the web in the past. That, of course, doesn’t mean it’s inaccurate, but just something to keep in mind.

It’s also worth pointing out that while it’s largely believed the iPhone 5 will come with a larger edge to edge display, all previous reports have hinted at a 4-inch screen. A 3.7-inch screen would be a slight improvement, but with Apple looking to take on many of the Android devices with noticeably larger 4+ inch screens, we dubious that a .2 inch upgrade is all Apple has in mind.

Topolsky notes that the information they’ve received could very well be design prototypes and not production ready phones. Indeed, there are a number of corroborating reports relaying that Apple hasn’t even yet placed orders for iPhone 5 component parts and that mass production on the next iteration of the iPhone won’t even commence until later this Summer. That said, it’s admittedly far too early to take too seriously reports regarding the iPhone 5 design, especially when they seem at odds with everything else we’ve been hearing lately.

Still, enticing fodder for the rumor mill for a lazy Friday evening.

While it was initially unclear if Apple was planning to keep Thunderbolt a technology exclusive to its MacBook Pro line, it’s become abundantly clear that all of Apple’s hardware will be privy to the Thunderbolt treatment.

First were reports that revamped iMacs would be coming with Apple and Intel’s jointly developed transfer technology, and now analyst Ming-Chi Kuo writes that Apple is also planning to refresh its MacBook Air line with Thunderbolt ports as well. Apple during the past quarter recorded 3.76 million units in Mac sales, in large part due to refreshed MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs.

The new MacBook Airs will reportedly begin manufacturing sometime in late May and should help Apple maintain what are already strong sales on its sleek line of notebooks. Also on deck for the MacBook Air refresh is adoption of Intel’s new Sandy Bridge processors. This should also help make the Air an even more attractive proposition as the current Air models still sport Intel Core 2 Duo processors.

Continue Reading

Some of the finer features of iOS 5 remain unknown at this point, though we eagerly look forward to WWDC 2011 when we’ll finally get a glimpse into Apple’s next-gen iOS. As it stands now, most of what we’ve heard about iOS 5 involves features concerning location functionality.

So until WWDC approaches in June, we’re all left to wonder what Apple has in store. So with that said, one enterprising fellow decided to mockup a video showcasing some functionality that would be quite interesting if Apple decided to implement it. The video below shows what iOS 5 integration with a Mac would look like when paired together.

There have been a number of reports over the past few months suggesting that Apple is planning on completely revamping its MobileMe service to include a digital locker that would enable users to store, and potentially stream, purchased content from iTunes from the cloud – namely, Apple’s large Data Center in North Carolina.

Apple, of course, isn’t alone in its efforts to implement such a feature. Google is also hard at work on something similar, but a new report from Reuters relays that Apple will beat the search giant to the punch and will launch its own offering ahead of Google. Just a few days ago, reports surfaced that Google’s efforts to strike licensing deals with record labels had come to a standstill. Also, remember that Amazon just a few weeks ago launched its own music storage service, albeit without new licensing agreements, though they’re apparently in talks with “some labels to reach agreements for a new, more sophisticated locker service.”

Apple’s plans will allow iTunes customers to store their songs on a remote server, and then access them from wherever they have an Internet connection, said two of these people who asked not to be named as the talks are still confidential.

The maker of the wildly popular iPhone and iPod, Apple has yet to sign any new licenses for the service and major music labels are hoping to secure deals before the service is launched, three of the sources said. Apple has not told its music partners of when it intends to introduce its music locker, they said.

Continue Reading

Some interesting news from 9to5Mac who reports that Apple has begun providing select developers with iPhones running the speedy dual-core A5 chip already found in the iPad 2. Apple will reportedly be touting huge speed advancements as one of the major selling points of the iPhone 5 and has already begun giving iPhone 4S devices, so to speak, to game developers to help them prepare for the increase in performance that will be available on the next gen iPhone. Note, of course, that when Steve Jobs introduced the iPad 2, he stated that graphics performance on the A5 is up to 9x faster than the A4.

The developers with access to these souped up iPhone 4s are reportedly from “high-level gaming outfits.”

The operating system running on these phones is a version of iOS 4 that supports the next-generation hardware, and this may be why we found the iPhone 5 with an A5 chip in the iOS 4 SDK at all. If past history repeats itself, the fifth-generation iPhone will ship with Apple’s fifth-generation mobile software, in this case iOS 5. iOS 5 will be announced at Apple’s WWDC conference in early June with a rumored launch in September of this year. If anything, this news backs up claims that the fifth-generation iPhone will have an A5 and that Apple is taking gaming very seriously.

Continue Reading

The blogosphere yesterday was aflutter with news that iOS 4 stores user location data in a unprotected and unencrypted file accessible on a user’s mobile device or desktop in a file called consolidated.db. The truth of the matter is that this file isn’t new and has been discussed quite extensively for months now as it’s been used in a number of law enforcement investigations.

But, we suppose the fact that this file is easily accessible is cause for concern, and naturally, it didn’t take longs for politicians to turn their heads towards the issue. Senator Al Franken from Minnesota (yes, formerly of Saturday Night Live) recently penned a letter to Apple CEO Steve Jobs. You can view it here as a PDF.

“Anyone who gains access to this single file,” Franken writes, “could likely determine the location of the user’s home, the businesses he frequents, the doctors he visits, the schools his children attend, and the trips he has taken over the past months or even a year.”

“It is also entirely conceivable,” Franken continues, “that malicious persons may create viruses to access this data from customers’ iPhones, iPads, and desktop and laptop computers. There are numerous ways in which this information could be abused by criminals and bad actors. Furthermore, there is no indication that this file is any different for underage iPhone or iPad users, meaning that the millions of children and teenagers who use iPhone or iPad devices also risk having their location collected and compromised.

Franken finishes up with a list of 9 questions he wants Apple to answer:
Continue Reading

Though there isn’t much information out there about what features iOS 5 will bring to the table, there have been rumblings that iOS 5 will be a major update with a particular focus on location-based features. Specifically, it’s been rumored that iOS 5 will incorporate check-in functionality along with the ability for friends to locate other friends – a godsend for anyone trying to find a group at a concert or sports arena, or even in a big city when no landmarks happen to be close-by. The latter feature, rumor has it, will be dubbed “find my friends.”

With that in mind, there were some special visitors to Apple’s campus this past Wednesday.

Who, you ask?

Well none other than Foursquare co-founder Dennis Crowley, Foursquare PR manager Erin Gleason, and Holger Luedorf, Foursquare’s VP of Business Development and Partnerships. Foursquare, of course, is an increasingly popular social networking service that allows friends to “check-in” at various locations and subsequently awards users points and “badges” based on various criteria. As of February 2011, the service had over 7 million registered users.

Continue Reading