Everything iCafe

The FCC have taken the new iPod Touch, with fancy-ass retina display and two cameras, and done that wonderful think they do, where they rip it to shreds. Interesting stuff, if you’re interested in chip numbers, and individual components.

Also on the subject of the new iPod Touch, when it popped up at the presentation and was announced to be even thinner than the previous generation, we all wanted to know how they managed to fit a camera and sensor in the damned thing! It turns out the rear camera’s resolutions is…underwhelming. Check out the specs page, it can only take images at 960×720, aka 0.6 megapixels, aka the size of 720p video. You’re not going to get nearly as awesome shots with this thing as the iPhone 4, though if the sensor isn’t too small, you might get pretty good quality.

[via FCC]

The ads for Apple’s new iPod Nano and iPod Touch are both available on the YouTubes, as well as on the pages for each device. The Touch ad uses Chappo’s “Come Home”, and the Nano has the classic “Short Skirt/Long Jacket” by Cake.

Twitter’s official iOS app has finally made its way to the iPad, with a huge number of new features! They’ve massively overhauled the interface to make it work on the iPad, and it now has panes, gestures, and in-line media.

The new version appears to be damned good, though there are still issues. Most noticeable is Twitter’s insistance about doing RTs their way, without adding any comments of your own.

This free app is obviously pushing to become king of the iPad Twitter apps. What’s your Twitter app of choice? Do you go for the official version, or is there a third party one you love? Tell us in the comments!

One of the big announcements that Apple made yesterday was ABC and Fox show rentals for just 99-cents, as part and parcel of the new Apple TV. Amazong quickly jumped on this, beating Apple at their own game, by offering shows by the same companies to buy for 99-cents an episode. No waiting four weeks, available right now. And you get to keep them.

Given how low of a price this is, some are even theorizing that Amazon is losing money on these sales, as they’re priced lower than DVD purchases.

[via Engadget]

Like every other Apple addict on the planet, as soon as I downloaded iTunes 10, I fired up Ping to have a look around. It’s deserted, and there’s no easy way for me to link up with my friends, other than spamming their email, or individually entering every name of a person I can think of. Admittedly, it’s still less than 12 hours after launch, so not everyone’s on board yet, but it’s still missing a lot of what a good social network needs.

When I signed up for Ping, I received an email from Apple that said I could connect Ping to Facebook, a feature that I see nowhere in iTunes.

Apparently there were talks between Apple and Facebook, but they didn’t go anywhere.

Other major problems that have popped up: you can’t like songs in your library, only through the iTunes store. Even though Apple has my entire song collection on hand, it doesn’t recommend artists to follow.

On the plus side, iTunes 10 is feeling pretty light on its feet, and now has individual volume controls when using AirTunes to broadcast to multiple speakers.

Even though iTunes 10 hasn’t quite rolled out yet, Apple has already amended the terms and conditions of iTunes to account for Ping and the ability to rent TV shows.

On a side note, it appears that Apple and PING Golf have made an agreement over letting Apple use the term “Ping” for their social network. How very civilized of them.

That awesome fantasy game nicknamed Project: Sword that Epic showed during today’s presentation? Part of it’s available for download right now, and is called Epic Citadel. It’s free, and needs an iPhone 3GS or better. You can’t do much, just wander around a town, from what I can tell. Looks pretty, though.

[via Gizmodo]

One of the new features in iTunes 10 is Ping, a musical social network, which will let you buy music and concert tickets. Live Nation has just put out a Press Release explaining their role with the new feature:

Following up on comments made at today’s Apple event regarding concert information on iTunes, Michael Rapino, President and CEO of Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:LYV) , stated: “We are thrilled to power the concert listings feature on iTunes and deliver this new and simple way for millions of iTunes users to purchase concert tickets at Livenation.com and Ticketmaster.com. Our partnership with Apple is a key part of our strategy to empower fans with the greatest access to live entertainment.”

It’s all done through Ticketmaster? Oh man, I can’t wait to pay a convenience fee, a printing fee, a non-physical ticket fee, a breathing their air fee, and a fee fee!

You can now download iTunes 10 from Apple. For a Mac, the hardware requirements are:

• Mac computer with an Intel, PowerPC G5 or G4 processor
• Intel, PowerPC G5 or 1.0GHz PowerPC G4 or faster processor is required to play Standard Definition video from the iTunes Store
• 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo or faster processor is required to play HD video, an iTunes LP, or iTunes Extras from the iTunes Store
• 512MB of RAM; 1GB is required to play HD video, an iTunes LP, or iTunes Extras
• Screen resolution of 1024×768 or greater; 1280×800 or greater is required to play an iTunes LP or iTunes Extras
• Playing videos also requires at least 16MB of video RAM
• Broadband Internet connection to use the iTunes Store
• Apple combo drive or SuperDrive to create audio, MP3, or back-up CDs; some non-Apple CD-RW recorders may also work.
• Apple SuperDrive to back up your library to DVDs; some non-Apple DVD-RW drives may also work.

And for Windows, it’s:

• A PC with a 1GHz Intel or AMD processor
• Intel Pentium D or faster processor is required to play Standard Definition video from the iTunes Store
• 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo or faster processor is required to play HD video, an iTunes LP, or iTunes Extras from the iTunes Store
• 512MB of RAM; 1GB is required to play HD video, an iTunes LP, or iTunes Extras
• Screen resolution of 1024×768 or greater; 1280×800 or greater is required to play an iTunes LP or iTunes Extras
• DirectX 9.0-compatible video card with 32MB of video RAM; 64MB recommended
• QuickTime-compatible audio card
• Broadband Internet connection to use the iTunes Store
• iTunes-compatible CD or DVD recorder to create audio CDs, MP3 CDs, or back-up CDs or DVDs

It does not appear to be available over Software Update yet. It’s 102MB, so might take you a little while to plow through.

Update: The download site is now giving an SSL error, and the file I grabbed before was iTunes 9.2.1. We may have to wait a touch longer for this.

Jobs’ “one more thing…”, or “one more hobby” as he put it, was the AppleTV. He admitted that it was not a big hit, but no set top boxes, though people love them. What he says people want, is Hollywood content, HD, low prices, not a computer, and no storage issues, no syncing to their computer, silent cool and small.

The new second generation AppleTV is 1/4 the size of the previous version. It has no power-brick, just plugs and plays.

There will be no purchases, just rentals, purely streaming. The day a movie comes out on DVD, it’s a $4.99 rental, which will drop as the movie ages. TV show rentals will be 99-cents, commercial free. Right now ABC and Fox are on board, as predicted by WSJ. NetFlix streaming will be supported, as predicted by Bloomberg. The AppleTV will also talk to YouTube, Flickr, MobileMe, PodCasts and streaming from your computer, be it Mac or PC.

If you tag a TV show as your favorite, it’ll have a notification of how many episodes you haven’t seen.

AirPlay will let you stream content from your iOS device to AppleTV with the push of a single button.

The new AppleTV will set you back just $99, and will be available in around 4 weeks, pre-orders from today.

Talk about this on our AppleTV forum!

With iTunes being incredibly popular, Apple has just announced a major revision to iTunes, updated to iTunes 10. The icon has changed to cut out the CD, to a new, sleeker look. It’s going to go online today, from Apple.com

There will be an upgrade to album and list views.

iTunes 10 will also add “Ping”, a social network for music, built in. It lets you follow musicians and friends, and see what they’re buying and talking about. Visually, it looks like a hybrid of FaceBook and iTunes store. Ping is for “social music discovery”, so you can see what people are listening to, and discover new stuff, and will create a top ten chart for you, based on that. There will be privacy settings, including letting anyone follow you, or approving each follower. You can listen to track demos, buy albums, and say which concerts you’re going to.

It’ll be available in 23 countries at launch.

Ping for iPhone/iPod Touch will show up in the iOS store.

Good idea? Bad idea? Talk it over in our iTunes forum.

With 275 million iPods sold, Jobs announced a major upgrade to each and every single iPod. Here’s the rundown:

New iPod Shuffle, is smaller than second gen, a return to form factor, with buttons, voiceover and playlists. It still has a clip, easy to use buttons, playlists, genius mixes, and VoiceOver. It comes in 5 colors, will have a 15 hour battery life, and will go for $49.

The new iPod Nano is the much-rumored touch-based tiny screened thing we’ve seen all over the place. Tiny, has a clip, has a multitouch interface, almost half as small and half as light as the earlier model. 24 hour battery life, built in FM radio, clock, photos. It does look like a tiny, tiny, tiny iPod Touch. Jobs showed re-arranging icons on the home screen “like other iOS devices”, so that’s a confirmation it’s on iOS. You can also flip the screen if you clip it on upside down, by rotating two fingers. It’ll be available in seven colors, including a Project: Red version with some proceeds going to charity. It’ll go for $149 for 4GB $179 for 8GB.

The new iPod Touch is thinner, much like the rumored version, with a slight change to the curve. It’ll have a retina display, 326 ppi like the iPhone 4. It’ll also have the A4 chip, gyroscope, front facing camera and FaceTime, rear camera with HD recording. Just as predicted. It’s an iPhone 4, but without the contract. FaceTime will happily go between iPhone and iPod Touch.

The iPod Touch is apparently the number 1 portable game player in the world, outselling Nintendo and Sony’s game players combined. 8GB model will go for $229, 32 for $299, and 64 for $399.

All the new iPods are available for pre-order today, shipping next week. Jobs then showed ads for the new iPods.

Talk about the new versions in our iPod and iPod Touch forums!

At the event today, Steve Jobs briefly previewed iOS 4.2, which will debut later this year. It will be a major update for the iPad, and will bring the iOS 4 features for the iPad, like multitasking and folders. He also announced a number of other features, and the OS will land in November as a free upgrade.

•Wireless printing, which is self-explanatory. Print from your iPad to any networked printer. When you print, Print Center goes into your dock, and shows you the information about current print jobs.

•AirTunes will now be renamed AirPlay, and will let you stream music, video, or pics across your network like you do with music in iTunes.

Excited? We are! Discuss this in our forums!

In addition to bug fixes, Steve Jobs announced a number of new features for iOS 4.1, and will be available next week:

HDR: High Dynamic Range photography, which takes a number of exposures in order to combine them into the best photo. Both the original and HDR version will be saved.

GameCenter: Both as a platform and as an app, with achievements and matchmaking. He then pulled up the crew from Epic Games to show a game made with their Unreal Engine, which looks amazing, and is shown in realtime. Codenamed Project: Sword, which looks stunning. They showed a quick fight between characters, controlled in realtime on stage. It’ll come out this holiday season.

During the annual iTunes event in San Francisco, Steve Jobs announced iOS 4.1, with a bunch of new features.

He claimed a large number of big fixes, including the proximity sensor problems, Bluetooth quality issues, and speeding up the iPhone 3G.

Steve Jobs took time to discuss the success of iOS, which has now gone out to 120 million devices. He cites they’re activating 230,000 devices a day, new activations only.

The App store has now served 6.5 billion apps, some 200 apps every second. There are 250,000 apps, of which 10% are for the iPad.

Jobs started the presentation by talking about retail Apple stores, now in 300 stores in 10 nations.

We’ve been hanging out for these major bug fixes since iOS 4 first landed! We cannot wait to give it a try. Give us your opinions in the discussion below, or in the forum.

After months of twiddling their thumbs awaiting the release of an app for the iPhone, Netflix subscribers have finally been rewarded. The alternative movie rental service released its iPhone app last week, bringing more than 17,000 titles in its catalog straight to the pockets of millions of iPhone users.

With features that let subscribers stream movies directly from their iPhones, the app should be a home run. And it mostly is, but it definitely doesn’t come without a few glitches.

Read the full Netflix review after the jump

Interface

To use the service, first of all, you do need a Netflix membership, which begin at $8.99 per month (more info here). The intro screen of the iPhone app asks for your login and account information, then the app quickly opens to a home screen with information on your preferences, views and instant queue.

Like the Netflix interface on a computer browser, the iPhone app suggests titles to watch based on past viewings. Though the text listing of the categories of these suggestions seems a bit clunky, as this is considered the homepage, tapping into a specific category shows a visual listing of cover images, similar to the computer browser. The homepage needs a lot of work–it almost looks like pages you would see in a phony app–perhaps a more visual layout, like that used in the categories, would make it a bit easier to read and definitely more attractive. The categories, however, are also severely lacking in comparison to Netflix viewed on the computer. Instead of being separated into subdivisions, the titles within categories are basically jumbled together into a massive lists, with no real rhyme or reason.

For a particular title you tap into, you can view some brief details about the film (rating, length, release), Netflix user ratings, and a very short description of the film. Here, you can also choose to add the film to your Instant Queue or play it directly from the app. Another downfall of the app is here, where you would usually get suggestions for other films you would like based on this selection. The app doesn’t offer anything of the sort, except for films you have already viewed (which is found on the homepage of the app).

The major feature lacking from this app is the DVD queue. Not only are you not able to organize or view your DVD queue, you also have no access to any titles that aren’t available for instant streaming. For example, searching a title in the Search feature that is only available on DVD will come up with no results–not even a message that the title wasn’t available for instant streaming.

Playback

Viewed on an iPhone4, the quality and speed of the streaming video is almost astounding. After almost a minute of loading, the video began playing with fantastic picture quality and sound. For most of the videos I watched through the app, there were several hiccups at the beginning, with the stream stopping a specific point and replaying over and over. However, by dragging the bar at the top a bit forward, I could easily skip ahead in the film and resume play.

When watching with a 3G connection, the blips and hiccups in the stream are pretty common, though not major interruptions. But when watching over a wi-fi connection, the stream is near flawless and incredibly reliable.

The picture doesn’t fill up the entire capacity of the iPhone screen, which is a bit disappointing, but the overall playback and features of it are pleasantly surprising. The playback bar at the top responds very well to dragging to different parts of movies with little delay, and the app also does a good job of picking up films where you left off if you exit or close the app suddenly.

Recap & Conclusion

Netflix
Price: FREE
Released: Aug. 26, 2010
Our Grade: A

Though Netflix’s computer interface is definitely more desirable for the overall experience of Netflix–finding new flicks, getting suggestions, interaction, etc.–the first iPhone app from Netflix hits it out of the park. The quality of the streaming video is extraordinary, considering this is a mobile device we’re talking about, and the ease at which you can access and view videos instantly is absolutely satisfying. Though a few more features really need to be added to round out the full Netflix experience, at the price of free, Netflix subscribers and loyalists really can’t pass this up. And anyone without Netflix should see this as a sign to consider coming over to the dark side (best decision you will ever make).

Go ahead, download it!

The Australian version of MacWorld have posted on their twitter feed some rumors about the AppleTV. They say it will stay the AppleTV, and not change to iTV, and that it won’t be shipping any time soon.

Three hours until we know for sure!

[via 9 to 5 Mac]

The Financial Times (behind registration wall) is reporting that Sony will try and steal Apple’s thunder today, by announcing their own media streaming service.

Sony will begin its latest attempt to fight back against Apple’s dominance in the digital media field on Wednesday, when it unveils a new music and video subscription service to run across a range of its devices.

The announcement is expected to be made in Berlin at the IFA technology show, just hours before Apple’s own music-themed press conference in California, which is expected to include updates to its iPod, iTunes and Apple TV products.

Sources in the media industry told the Financial Times that Sony would use its PlayStation games consoles as the starting point for a new service that users will be able to use across a range of other internet-connected devices. That could include Walkman music players, Vaio computers, Bravia TVs, Blu-ray players and Sony Ericsson mobile phones.

I’ll just put it this way: I have never used a piece of Sony software that was snappy, easy to use, or good. Plus, their eternal commitment to proprietary hardware gives them a permanent black mark in my book.

[via Gizmodo]

WSJ, a sister company to Fox, is saying that both Fox and ABC will provide 99-cent TV show rentals, to be announced at today’s Apple event.

Fox’s involvement in Apple’s proposal has some detractors within the company, some of whom argue that Apple’s proposal threatens to damage the traditional television business. But Fox – like Disney – considers its participation to be a way to experiment with new pricing and distribution for TV shows, according to people familiar with the matter. Some of these people said Fox agreed to participate in 99-cent rentals for a short period of time, and agreed to the lower-cost price only for broadcast shows it both produces and airs, such as “Glee,” “Bones” and “Lie to Me.” The Apple proposal won’t affect cable shows such as FX’s “Justified,” or Fox network shows, including “American Idol,” for which Fox doesn’t control the digital rights. According to the people familiar with the matter, part of the calculus for Fox is that News Corp. wants Apple’s help with other digital projects, including the iPad version of The Wall Street Journal and a digital news offering known inside News Corp. as the “Daily Planet,” the name of the fictional paper in Superman comics.

It sounds like the rumor that this is part of a push by Rupert Murdoch to get more print content on the iPad might not be far from the truth.

Today, for the first time in the better part of a decade, Appel will livestream the keynote for a major event. Why now? That’s a very good question. A tipster tells CultofMac that this is an exercise to test their new server farm in North Carolina. According to their tip, “the goal is to monitor traffic load and quality.”

This actually makes a huge amount of sense. It would be a trial by fire for their ability to get streaming content reliably out to hundreds of thousands of users, which might happen regularly if they do move to cloud based streaming media.

The event today will be broadcast via HTTP Live Streaming. If you want to know if you can view it, try this demo link provided by Apple.