• apple,  ios,  iphone

    Apple Sends Out Sept 12 Event Invitations

    September 5, 2012 /

    Yesterday, Apple sent out media and press invitations to a September 12 event that is widely expected to be the unveiling of the next generation iPhone, the so called ‘iPhone 5’.  The final golden master version of iOS 6, which was previewed at this year’s World Wide Developer’s Conference (WWDC) is also expected.

    As you can see from the graphic, the date is 9/12 and the ’12’ is casting the shadow of a ‘5’ indicating the ‘iPhone 5’ that has been rumored for months now.

    AppleInsider.com, who received an invitation, writes:

    “The invitations sent out read “It’s almost here,” with a large number 12. Below the date of the event is a shadow cast with a number “5,” implying the unveiling of Apple’s next-generation iPhone, the successor to the iPhone 4S.
    The event will be held next Wednesday at 10 a.m. Pacific, 1 p.m. Eastern at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, Calif.”

    [Via AppleInsider.com…]

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  • astraware,  atari,  ea games,  gameloft,  games,  hp,  ios,  ipad,  iphone,  ipod touch,  palm,  touchpad

    Labor Day Mobile Games Sale Is ON!!

    September 1, 2012 /

    It’s Labor Day weekend here in the United States and that means there there are some good sales going on for some great mobile games – to help you NOT labor.

    Gameloft and Electronic Arts have many games in Apple’s App Store on sale for $0.99.

    Atari and APPODAY are running a promotion on the Atari’s Greatest Hits game for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.  You can download the complete 99-game pack for FREE between August 31 – September 1!  Better get cracking, as this offer expires TODAY!  Once you download the games to your iOS device, you can have unlimited play until you delete the Atari’s Greatest Hits games off your device. Once you do, you have to pay $9.99 for all the games, or $0.99 for a game pack.

    Astraware HP TouchPad Word Games on Sale

    Astraware, a long time creator of mobile games is running a promotion for their HP TouchPad webOS word games. For more details, checkout the HP App Catalog or the Astraware HP TouchPad word games website.

    Thanks to RobT for the tip!

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  • amazon,  android,  fire,  google,  kindle,  tablet

    Amazon Kindle Event Next Week

    September 1, 2012 /

    This coming week, Amazon is expected to host a media event next week at which many have speculated will unveil the next generation Kindle tablet.

    Amazon flamed the “Fires”, sorry obligatory pun was necessary, when it published a press release on Thursday (8/30/12) stating that the current model Fire has sold out.

    ““We’re grateful to the millions of customers who have made Kindle Fire the most successful product launch in the history of Amazon,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com Founder and CEO. “This has been a big year for digital products on Amazon—all of the top 10 sellers on Amazon.com since Kindle Fire launched just less than a year ago are digital products. Kindle Fire is sold out, but we have an exciting roadmap ahead—we will continue to offer our customers the best hardware, the best prices, the best customer service, the best cross-platform interoperability, and the best content ecosystem.””

    So it took Amazon nine months to sell out of their Kindle Fire.  I guess that isn’t too bad.  While boasting “over 10,000 5-star customer reviews” and having “captured 22% of tablet sales in the U.S.,” Amazon continues to keep sales numbers to themselves.

    Regardless, the Kindle Fire is likely the best selling Google Android-powered tablet on the market today.  But it may not stay that way for long.  Google has recently started shipping their own 7-inch Android tablet, the Nexus 7 to rave reviews.  And Apple, not wanting to lose any sales opportunities, is rumored to be launching a new 7-inch “iPad Mini” in October, just in time to ruin Google’s and Amazon’s holiday sales numbers.

    While we don’t know if Amazon will be unveiling one or two new Kindles next week, what does seem pretty clear at this point is that the online mega retailer won’t be releasing a 10-inch iPad competitor.  AppleInsider.com writes:

    “While a larger Kindle Fire may still be in the works, the source says Amazon is sticking with the 7-inch form factor and will announce two new models next week, including a slightly reworked version of the existing tablet. The decision is thought to be a defensive move in response to a growing small form factor tablet market, with new devices like Google’s Nexus 7 offering stiff competition to Amazon’s device.”

    We’ll have an update on Amazon’s new Kindle offerings next week.

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  • apple,  fusion,  mac os x,  next,  openstep,  os,  parallels,  steve jobs

    Narrowing In on NeXT OpenStep

    August 30, 2012 /

    A few days ago I talked about wanting to get NeXT’s OpenStep running on my MacBook Pro in either Parallels or VMware Fusion.

    I’m narrowing in on a vendor that has the software I’m looking for.  Bonus points for the vendor for having the authority to resell the software with Apple’s blessing.  I will post more details about the vendor and purchasing options once the software becomes available for purchase.

    In the mean time, check out the video below for a ‘live’ demo of NeXTStep running on a greyscale NeXT Cube powered by none other than the Motorola 68040 processor.  The same processor that was used in the 1991 Apple Macintosh Quadra 900.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXHFfc3btCI]

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  • homebrew,  hp,  touchpad,  web os

    webOS Homebrew: onTap Community Magazine

    August 29, 2012 /

    Who expected that in August 2012 I’d be writing about webOS again?  Not me.  But once again the small but dedicated Palm webOS community has surprised me.

    I was playing with my HP/alm TouchPad and came across the ‘Homebrew Pivot’ patch from the webOS onTap Community Magazine project while browsing Preware.

    Once the small patch is applied to your webOS device, the HP App Catalog Pivot feed is modified to point at the onTap magazine feed.  You can download and install the Tweaks patch, also available in Preware, to enable or disable the onTap patch and toggle the HP Pivot feed with the onTap homebrew feed.

    Right now the onTap writing team is putting the finishing touches on their first issue and should be out in the next week or two.  I’ll be sure to post an update article when the feed goes live and the first issue is published.  The sample pages (see below) that have been developed by the onTap writing staff look just as polished and professional as did the content developed by HP.

    As a long time fan of Palm (and Palm support forums moderator and blogger and podcaster) and their products, I’m really interested to see what the editorial staff at onTap has, well, on tap, for us.  (Sorry, about the obligatory pun.)

    For more information, there are a number of places you can check out online:

    Website: http://www.webosontap.com
    Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/webOSonTap/
    Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/webOSonTap
    Google+: https://plus.google.com/103118434017670797778/

    webOS Nations Forums

    HP’s Pivot Spring issue

    onTap’s Place Holder on the TouchPad

    onTap Preview Screen Shots

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  • apple

    Cook Changes Up SVP Line Up

    August 28, 2012 /

    Yesterday Apple CEO Tim Cook announced via press release that he is promoting two company vets to the role of Senior Vice President.

    “Apple [has] announced that Craig Federighi, Apple’s vice president of Mac Software Engineering, and Dan Riccio, Apple’s vice president of Hardware Engineering, have been promoted to senior vice presidents. Federighi and Riccio will report to Apple CEO Tim Cook and serve on Apple’s executive management team.”

    In the same press release, it was announced that SVP Hardware Engineering Bob Mansfield, who announced his retirement earlier this year will be staying on and continue to report directly to Mr. Cook.

    [Via Apple.com…]

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  • app store,  apple,  apple tv,  itunes

    A Note About Apple TV (Generation 1) Content

    August 27, 2012 /

    Apple released the first Apple TV set top box in 2007 calling it a ‘hobby’ device and wanted to see what customers would do with it.  I’ve recently upgraded to a new iOS powered Apple TV third generation to watch TV shows and movies on my living room TV.

    My first generation Apple TV is now connected the TV in my girl’s room.  They don’t have a cable box so this gives them a way to watch TV shows and movies that my wife and I can monitor.  But the first generation Apple TV was released in a time before 1080p and there is lots of HD content in the iTunes Store now.

    I recently ran into a problem where a late episode of Discovery’s Mythbusters.  Regardless of what I tried, the episode wouldn’t sync.  Naturally, I ran to Google.com and started searching for answers.

    I couldn’t find any.

    Then I realized that the episode was only showing an “HD” icon, and not the “HD SD” icon.  SD being “standard definition,” the 720p version of the show that the original Apple TV can play.  And there was my light bulb moment.  When I purchased the episode, I purchased the HD version to watch on my MacBook Pro or my living room third generation Apple TV.  I needed the SD version so my kids could watch it in their room.  Aha!

    Once I downloaded the SD version of the shows, the episodes synced up to the first generation Apple TV normally.

    So the lesson that I learned here is when you are purchasing HD content and you plan to use it on a first generation Apple TV make sure you go back and download the SD version of the show or movie if it doesn’t automatically download.

    To learn more about the Apple TV, in all it’s versions, check out the Apple TV Wikipedia page.

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  • app store,  apple,  mac,  mac os x,  mac pro,  macbook pro

    Smooth Sailing with Mac OS X 10.8.1 Update

    August 26, 2012 /

    Earlier this afternoon I finally got around to installing the Mountain Lion 10.8.1 update on my mid-2009 MacBook Pro.

    Mac OS X 10.8.1 is a small update weighing in at less than 40MB.  The whole install process literally took 5 minutes.  My Mac Pro will get upgraded tomorrow.
    You download the update from the Mac App Store rather than the Software Update control panel.  This is a change in how updates are downloaded with Lion (10.7), Snow Leopard (10.6) and earlier versions of Mac OS X.
    If you don’t have Mac OS X Mountain Lion installed on your Mac, you can purchase it for $19.99 from the Mac App Store.  Once you have purchased Mac OS X, you can install it on any Macintosh that you own and meets the minimum technical requirements.  Double check the specs.  Not all of the new features, like AirPlay are supported on 2011 and earlier Macs.  Updates to Mac OS X are free to download.
    I’m running the 17-inch model with 8GB of RAM and a 500GB disk drive.  I chose the 17-inch MacBook Pro line, now discontinued, to give me the best of both worlds; a desktop when connected to a 37-inch HD TV and a high resolution, large screen computer when I’m at my various meetings during the month.
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  • fusion,  next,  openstep,  os,  parallels,  steve jobs

    OpenStep on my MacBook Pro

    August 26, 2012 /

    With the one year anniversary of Steve Jobs passing coming up on October 5, I’m once again thinking about getting NeXT’s OpenStep installed on my MacBook Pro.

    NeXT’s operating system software, NextStep 3 and OpenStep 4 wouldn’t be installed directly on my Mac hardware, but rather I’d install it as a guest OS in Parallels or Fusion.  The problem, really, is that legal copies of NeXT’s software is hard to come by and my knowledge of UNIX and Linux is painfully low.

    The Mac On Intel blog looks like a good place to get started.

    If I’m going to get this done by October 5, it’s going to take a lot of long nights and help from the community.  Can I do it?  I don’t know, but I’ll give it a try.

    If you have some NeXT OpenStep experience running inside Parallels or Fusion, hit me up on Twitter with the handle @alanmgrassia.

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  • apple,  apple store,  ipad,  smart cover

    Apple (Product) Red Smart Cover for iPad

    August 26, 2012 /

    Yesterday I visited the Stamford Apple Store and picked up a (Product) Red smart cover for my iPad 3.

    The red smart cover is leather and you can feel the difference over the polyurethane covers both in weight and in flexibility.  The leather cover feels more sturdy and a little bit heavier than my previous grey poly cover.

    All in all, I’m pretty happy with the purchase.  For more details, check out the Apple website.

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