As we noted earlier this week as part of our roundup of device compatibility for various iOS 6 features, several of Apple's new mapping features including Flyover and turn-by-turn navigation are not officially supported on the iPhone 4, much less the iPhone 3GS.
But as reported by SlashGear, a member of Russian site iguides has posted videos [Google translation] showing the 3D maps and Flyover working on a jailbroken iPhone 4. The poster has also included instructions for adding the functionality, although the procedure is not yet a completely straightforward one.
Apple has historically placed hardware restrictions on certain features of its iOS release, based at least in part on how well older hardware handles the specific features. In other cases like Siri on the iPhone 4S, Apple's limitations may have more to do with differentiation and marketing. But it seems reasonable to think that 3D map performance on the pre-A5 devices like the iPhone 4 simply doesn't meet Apple's requirements, and thus the company has elected not to officially support the feature on that hardware.
Regardless of the reasons for Apple's limitations on mapping features, hackers and developers will undoubtedly continue working on ways to circumvent those restrictions, and we will likely see other features like turn-by-turn navigation also come to older devices for those willing to tweak their devices to enable them.
A functioning Apple 1 computer, one of the first 200 computers sold by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, sold for $374,500 including the 12% buyer's premium at a Sotheby's action in New York. The Apple 1 originally sold for $666.66. The BBC notes that only about 50 Apple 1's still exist and only a handful actually work.
Sotheby's said there was a battle between two parties for the item which also included the original manuals. A set of bids were executed by the auctioneer on behalf of an absentee collector, but a telephone bidder proved more persistent and eventually clinched the sale.
APPLE I COMPUTER
Operational Apple Computer I. An Apple I motherboard, labeledᅠon obverse AppleᅠComputer I, Palo Alto, CA. Copyright 1976. Includes circuit board with four rows A-D, and columns 1-18; MOS Technologies 6502 microprocessor, labeled MCS 6502 3776; video terminal; keyboard interface; 8K bytes RAM in 16-pin 4K memory chips; 4 power supplies including 3 capacitors; firmware in PROMS (A1, A2); low-profile sockets on all integrated circuits; breadboard; heatsink; expansion connector; cassette board connector. (15 1/8 x 9 in.; 385 x 234 mm)
Together with: Apple I Cassette Interface, labeled Apple I Cassette Interface Copyright 1976, partial "G" lettered in triangle on reverse, in black ink manuscript (4 x 2 in.; 102 x 50 mm). — Apple-I Operation Manual. Palo Alto: Apple Computer Company. 12 pp. in wrappers (11 x 8 1/2 in.; 280 x 214 mm), with 8 circuit diagrams, 2 on foldout printed verso and recto, one full page; with original Apple Computer Co. logo on upper wrapper; tear along fold, light staining on wrapper and bottom right corner. — Apple-I Cassette Interface Manual, Palo Alto: Apple Computer Company. Oblong 8 pp. bifolia (8 1/2 x 5 1/2 in.; 140 x 215 mm), with some staining to wrappers; original logo on upper wrapper, warranty onᅠlower wrapper —ᅠPreliminary Apple BASIC Users Manual. Palo Alto: Apple Computer Company, October 1976. 8ᅠstapled sheets (11ᅠx 8ᅠ1/2 in.;ᅠ280ᅠxᅠ214 mm), printedᅠversoᅠand recto, with first sheet onᅠblueᅠpaperᅠwith tear along stapleᅠandᅠmanuscript "Randy JᅠSuess."ᅠSomeᅠstaining toᅠfirstᅠandᅠlastᅠpage,ᅠwithᅠtearᅠonᅠlast page. — Double-sidedᅠadvertisement with illustration for Apple IᅠComputer and theᅠApple Cassette Interface,ᅠwith manuscriptᅠnote (11 xᅠ8ᅠ1/2 in.; 280 x 214 mm).
Early Apple memorabilia has been a hot ticket recently. Sotheby's sold Apple's founding corporate papers -- signed by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ron Wayne -- in December for nearly $1.6 million.
Late last month, Apple launched a new "Free App of the Week" promotion on the App Store, featuring a single app on each of the iPhone and iPad platforms and offering the normally-paid titles for free. Apple's digital content stores have of course offered free apps for years, but the new promotion seeks to bring greater visibility to content being temporarily discounted from paid to free.
In another sign that Apple may be looking to increase exposure for free content, the company earlier this week registered two new domains: freeonappstore.com and freeonibookstore.com. There is currently no content located at either of the sites, but it seems that Apple may be interested in either creating specific websites featuring free content or using them as redirects to point to existing features.
The two domains were registered the day after Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference keynote, but they do not appear to have any direct relationship to announcements made during the event. Consequently, Apple's intentions for the domains remains unknown.
Outside of the digital stores themselves, Apple has a number of other venues for promoting free and discounted content, including a partnership with Starbucks for free "Pick of the Week" offerings such as apps and book samples. The current Free App of the Week promotion also began as a Facebook promotion on Apple's App Store page, but has since migrated directly into the App Store.
Four days before the 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro was introduced, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo released a report claiming that Apple would launch the machine alongside the then-current MacBook Pro line rather than as a direct replacement.
Kuo's report turned out to be nearly exactly on point, as was the case with his April report claiming that Apple would discontinue the 17-inch MacBook Pro, and so it pays to revisit his Retina MacBook line claims to see what the future might hold.
In that report, Kuo claimed that the 13-inch MacBook Pro would likely arrive in the August timeframe at the earliest, with the machine's release being held back by display yield and challenges with heat dissipation in the smaller body.
[W]e don’t expect the new 13” MacBook to be available until after August this year, as it has limited space for thermal dissipation and uses a lower-yield retinal display than the 15” version.
Figure from Kuo's June 7 report with estimated launch info for 2012 MacBook lineup
With the 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro now available, Kuo has released a new report taking another look at Apple's plans for the 13-inch version, and AppleInsider reports that he is now estimating a September production ramp for the machine with an early October launch to follow.
Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI shared in a note with AppleInsider on Thursday that he expects Apple to ramp up production of a 13-inch next-generation MacBook Pro with Retina display in September. That would allow the product to hit stores in early October, in time for the holiday shopping season.
In his note last week, Kuo predicted that the 15-inch Retina model would carry a thickness of 19 millimeters (0.75 inches), while the 13-inch model could come in slightly thinner at 18 millimeters (0.71 inches). But the 15-inch model Apple actually introduced already comes in at the 18 millimeter figure, so it is unclear whether Apple would be able trim any additional thickness off for the 13-inch model.
Potentially supporting the idea of a 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro being in testing is the discovery of a "MacBookPro10,2" listing in the results database for the battery utility app MiniBatteryLogger. The 15-inch MacBook Pro carries a designation of "MacBookPro10,1", and while the MacBookPro10,2 designation could presumably have been faked, there are several indications that it may be legitimate.
First, the database entry appeared on April 25, well ahead of much specific information on the Retina MacBook Pro that might have helped create a legitimate-looking fake entry. Second, the machine's battery registers a design capacity of 6580 mAh, roughly 14% greater than the 5770 mAh battery found in the non-Retina 13-inch MacBook Pro. By comparison, the 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro's 8460 mAh battery has roughly 22.5% greater capacity than the 6900 mAh battery in the non-Retina model.
While the battery capacity ratios between corresponding Retina and non-Retina MacBook Pro batteries would not be exactly the same if this MacBookPro10,2 is indeed a genuine 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro, they are at least in the same range and one could imagine that a smaller display and lack of a discrete graphics card could shrink the amount of capacity boost needed to power a 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro.
Apple quietly discontinued the 17" MacBook Pro on Monday, the end of the line for a laptop that Apple has been selling in some form for nearly 10 years.
A favorite of road warriors and mobile production gurus, the end of the Apple notebook was upsetting for some, though Apple is still selling almost-new 17" MacBook Pros -- and likely will be for a while.
Apple is currently offering more than a dozen different 17" MacBook Pro configurations on the US Apple Online Store in the Refurbished Mac category. Refurbished Macs carry the same warranty as new machines, come with all the same accessories and the AppleCare Protection Plan can be purchased to extend the warranty and customer support out to three years.
Apple has refurbished 17" machines originally released as far back as April 2010 and as recently as October 2011. Prices range from $1,689 to $2,199.
Earlier this year, Apple came under fire from consumers advocates and Congress after it was discovered that apps, most notably Path, were uploading users' entire address books to their servers without alerting users or asking for authorization. Path deleted the information, but a pair of U.S. Congressmen sent a letter to Apple asking for information on the company's data collection policies.
More recently, LinkedIn came under fire for transmitting information from iOS calendar entries back to its servers in plain text.
In the OS X Mountain Lion beta, Apple began requiring apps to get explicit permission to access user's address book information, and Apple PR said in February that any iOS app "wishing to access contact data will require explicit user approval in a future software release."
Starting with iOS 6, Apple now requires apps to get explicit user permission before accessing Contacts, Calendars, Reminders, and Photos. From the "Data Privacy" section in Apple's iOS 6 Release Notes:
In addition to location data, the system now asks the user’s permission before allowing third-party apps to access certain user data, including:
For contact, calendar, and reminder data, your app needs to be prepared to be denied access to these items and to adjust its behavior accordingly. If the user has not yet been prompted to allow access, the returned structure is valid but contains no records. If the user has denied access, the app receives a NULL value or no data. If the user grants permission to the app, the system subsequently notifies the app that it needs to reload or revert the data.
As the iPhone and iPad have grown in popularity, Apple has come under increasing scrutiny over the privacy practices of both Apple and developers participating in the App Store ecosystem. Last year, Senator Al Franken asked both Apple and Google to require app developers to have "clear and understandable" privacy policies.
Apple later agreed to comply with a new California law requiring links to privacy policies in consistent locations and provide a method for users to report apps that do not comply with privacy requirements.
Congress also got involved over the disclosure of location information to app makers, going so far as to introduce a bill that would force companies to get explicit authorization before disclosing the user's location to anyone. Apple now asks the iOS users if Location Services should be enabled during the initial setup process.
iOS 6 is currently in beta and is expected to be publicly released this fall.
With a number of media outlets having received Retina MacBook Pro review units on Monday after the Worldwide Developers Conference keynote and a few early hands-on reports having been published, more extensive reviews are now beginning to appear. To help summarize the overall response to the new machine, we've put together this roundup of some of the major reviews, along with some highlights from each of them.
If you could design your dream laptop, how would you describe it?
Superfast. Superthin. Superlight. Superlong battery life. Immense storage. Enough memory to keep lots of programs open at once. Stunning screen, comfortable keyboard, terrific sound. Fast start-up, rugged body, gorgeous looks.
And, of course, inexpensive.
The new Apple laptop that went on sale Monday hits an impressive number of those high notes in one radical swoop. As you might guess, the one it misses by the biggest margin is “inexpensive.”
Is this the best Mac ever? You can't ignore the Air as an amazing piece of machinery, especially with the new, higher-powered Ivy Bridge processors and faster SSDs tucked inside its wedge profile. But, this new Pro is on another level of performance. With a quad-core processor and up to 16GB of RAM it's a proper beast -- a proper beast that you can throw in your messenger bag and carry around all day without spending all night complaining about an aching back.
That said, this is not exactly a small machine, heavy enough that those happy Air users who've been feeling tempted might want to take a swing by their closest Apple Store and lift one themselves. It's expensive, too.
If you’re in the market for a premium OS X laptop right now, it’s hard not to recommend the new MacBook Pro with Retina display. If, however, power isn’t your ultimate goal, may we suggest shaving a few pounds and specs for the MacBook Air. As for everything in between, those non-Retina “standard” MacBook Pros, well... the writing’s on the wall. And of course, it doesn’t hurt to be even a little bit patient and wait for more apps to push Retina-optimized updates — if you get the MacBook Pro with Retina display now, you’ll be waiting on the world to change.
Even for those of us who are unlikely to spend more than two grand on a computer, or who prefer something more ultraportable than a 15″ model, the arrival of the Retina MacBook Pro is a meaningful moment in Mac history. It’s the most refined, advanced PC that Apple has produced to date. And it’s a safe bet that the ideas it exhibits will be reflected in future models from the company, including ones with smaller screens and smaller price tags. It’s both a great computer, and a preview of great computers to come.
I've previously called the 15-inch MacBook Pro one of the most universally useful all-around laptops you can buy. This new version adds to that with HDMI, faster ports, and more portability. But it also subtracts from that with its exclusion of an optical drive and Ethernet port, plus its very high starting price. The Pro and Retina Pro are clearly two laptops designed for two different users, and with the exception of all-day commuters who need something closer to a MacBook Air or ultrabook, one of the two branches of the MacBook Pro family tree is still probably the most universally useful laptop you can buy.
Just three days after the announcement of the new MacBook Pro, developers have begun updating their software packages with support for the new Retina display. Until software is updated, text and images are generally pixel doubled, making everything displayed within those apps look somewhat fuzzy on the ultra-high resolution display.
Google has built Retina support into the nightly build of Chrome -- a continually updated beta release -- but says in a blog post that the Chrome team has "further to go over the next few weeks."
This way, both video and subtitles or other overlays will be rendered at the display's native resolution leading to a greatly improved viewing experience.
If you're one of the lucky guys to have a MacBook Pro with Retina Display already, you're welcome to check out tomorrow night's nightly builds (CEST).
When the MacBook Pro with Retina Display was announced, Apple disclosed that it had been working with major developers like Adobe, Autodesk, and Blizzard to enable Retina support in their apps, but it will likely take some time for major apps to gain Retina support.
While we noted early yesterday that the first Retina MacBook Pro orders had begun shipping, a number of MacRumors readers are now reporting that the first deliveries are already arriving.
At least one of the readers who received his new MacBook Pro had ordered a custom configuration, bumping the high-end stock model to the 2.7 GHz processor and 16 GB of RAM.
Portion of label from delivered Retina MacBook Pro showing custom configuration Newly-delivered Retina MacBook Pro on initial boot
A few customers have reported being able to obtain the new Retina MacBook Pro in-store, but many Apple retail stores still do not have any stock of the machines beyond the display models, with some now indicating that they will not have stock until Monday.
As noted by AllThingsD, Apple and Time Inc. appear to have settled their long-running differences over digital magazine subscriptions, with Time launching iPad-only subscriptions for its magazines through Newsstand. According to a press release from Time, the offering addresses all 20 of its consumer magazines, which include Fortune, People, Sports Illustrated, and Time.
Time was prepared to launch iPad subscriptions for Sports Illustrated two years ago, but Apple refused to allow Time to bill subscribers directly rather than going through the iTunes Store mechanism where Apple would keep 30% of the revenue and limit publisher access to subscriber information. As a result, iPad users were initially limited to purchasing titles on a single-issue basis.
Nearly a year later, Apple and Time reached an agreement to allow print subscribers to receive free access to the iPad editions of the publisher's major magazine titles. But digital-only subscriptions remained off the table even as other major publishers such as Hearst were accepting Apple's subscription terms and rolling out their own offerings.
AllThingsD notes that it is unclear what changed between Time and Apple to now allow full-fledged digital subscriptions, including whether Time simply relented or if it was able to obtain some concession from Apple.
It could be as simple as Time Inc. trying to boost sales, which haven’t been stellar recently — a slump at its People magazine title is particularly troublesome for the publisher. Or perhaps parent company Time Warner got some other concession from Apple for one of its other units, like HBO or Turner.
Digital subscription pricing for Time titles varies, but a flagship title like Sports Illustrated is being offered at a $3.99 monthly rate or a $38.99 annual rate, a significant discount from the $4.99 single-issue pricing for the weekly magazine.
A new Apple Store is coming to South Loop according to a Chicago city alderman. The store, which may be coming to the Roosevelt Collection, would join flagship stores Lincoln Park and North Michigan Avenue as Chicago's third store within the city limits. Apple has seven stores in Chicago suburbs.
The story, reported by Crain's Chicago Business, quotes Alderman Robert Fioretti (2nd) as saying Apple was "coming close" to moving into the complex, located at Wells Street and Roosevelt Road.
Last year, there was some controversy over whether or not Apple's iTunes Match service supported streaming of music or just downloading files. As it stands, iTunes Match appears to play songs as they download, which is an issue of semantics -- but all that will change in iOS 6.
As noted by Apple 'n' Apps, in the iOS 6 beta, iTunes Match has become a full-on streaming service. Songs can be downloaded or streamed, with streaming being the default playback option:
iTunes Match has become a streaming service in the beta. We confirmed it, by playing a few songs, then turning off iTunes Match, and seeing that the music folder then had no music. In iOS 5, the few tracks you listened to are stored. The various playlists, artists, and songs also drop the cloud icon next to them, and those are reserved for the album view, and a little bit off to the side.
iTunes Match costs $24.99 per year, matching songs in your iTunes library to those in the iTunes Music Store.
Back in mid-May, a pair of Geekbench 2 benchmarks that claimed to be from unreleased MacBook Pro and iMac models appeared, setting off speculation that updates to both lines might be imminent if the entries were indeed legitimate. But with Apple not updating the iMac earlier this week at its Worldwide Developers Conference keynote, those looking for an upgraded all-in-one desktop Mac have been left waiting.
With updated MacBook Pro models reaching the public, Primate Labs highlighted some of the benchmarks yesterday, and the details for the non-Retina 15-inch MacBook Pro match up nearly exactly with what appeared in the entry from last month, all but confirming that it was indeed a legitimate leak.
Now with that information in hand, it pays to revisit the iMac benchmark that appeared around the same time, and while the two benchmarks aren't necessarily linked, it could generate hope that an updated iMac may still be right around the corner. The iMac benchmark referred to an "iMac13,2" model running a 3.4 GHz Core i7-3770 quad-core processor with 4 GB of 1600 MHz RAM, and while it is possible that the information could have been faked, Primate Labs previously reported that it believes the entry to be legitimate.
Further fueling speculation of a near-term iMac update is recent confusion in which it was initially reported that Apple representatives had told reporters that new iMac and Mac Pro models would likely be arriving in 2013. But following publication of those reports, Apple press relations staff specifically clarified those remarks to note that only the Mac Pro would be seeing the 2013 update. The assumption related to that clarification is of course that an iMac update is very likely to come sooner than the end of this year.
It has already been over 400 days since the iMac was last updated, and Ivy Bridge processors appropriate for the iMac have been available since late April. Consequently, it seems likely that the iMac will still be receiving an update in the relatively near future despite not making an appearance at this week's conference.
As for what improvements the next-generation iMac will see beyond Ivy Bridge, at least one mainstream news report has claimed that Apple is working on Retina displays for the iMac, although we previously analyzed how daunting of a task it would be to support four times the number of pixels found on the current models, particularly on a 27-inch display. Other sources have claimed that Apple is working on anti-reflective glass for the iMac, rumors that may have gained some support with Apple having touted this week that the Retina MacBook Pro's display produces 75% less glare than non-Retina models.
Apple today rolled out an update for its Apple Store [App Store] app for iOS devices, adding two new features to enhance the functionality of the app.
The first feature is support for Express Checkout, which has been available through the regular online store but is now available through the app as well. With Express Checkout, a user placing an online order can bypass the shopping cart system and simply click the "Buy Now" button and enter his or her password to complete the order. The order will automatically use the default billing and shipping information associated with the account. A preference allows users to specify whether Express Checkout should default to shipping purchases, picking up purchases, or asking each time.
The second new feature, which is only compatible with the iPhone 4S, allows users to alert Specialists at their local retail stores that they are arriving to pick up an order. Typically, users have had to find a Specialist upon arrival and wait for their orders to be collected, but with the new advance check-in system their orders can be ready the moment they walk in the door.
The developers behind the popular notification service Growl plan to actively develop the application going forward, even as Apple includes a similar feature -- Notification Center -- in OS X Mountain Lion.
Growl's lead developer Chris Forsythe explained in a blog post that Growl will be embracing Notification Center rather than trying to compete with it or shutting the project down. Part of the reason for this is that Notification Center will only be accessible by apps sold through the Mac App Store -- standalone apps offered through a developer website won't be able to access the Notification APIs.
The introduction of Notification Center won’t necessarily “sherlock” Growl as a notification alternative for Mac users and developers. While Notification Center will undoubtedly provide an excellent native solution for developers of Mac App Store apps — ultimately serving the average user with a notification system that works out of the box, — Growl will still remain a capable third-party app that offers fine grained controls over notifications with several customization options.
One particularly useful new feature, called 'Mist', that Growl is planning revolves around making life easier for developers. The Mist API allows developers to implement one piece of code that will send notifications to Growl, if it's available, and Notification Center if it isn't. Growl has delivered one piece of code to support both its own notifications and Apple's Notification Center.
The one thing that has kept me up at night since the 10.8 release was announced, is that I really want to be able to help developers transition from Growl to Notification Center on their terms. We could have taken an aggressive stance and said "No, Growl is more awesome!", but at the end of the day that isn't us.
Here's the important takeaway. I said this same exact sentence 73 times. I'm going to say it 73 times more today. "It would be irresponsible for us to not support NC and abandon our developers, so we're going to embrace it." And that's just what we're going to do.
Growl is available for $1.99 on the Mac App Store. [Direct Link]
Apple yesterday released a pair of software updates for Java, issuing versions for both Lion and Snow Leopard. The update in part builds upon an earlier Java update for Lion that disabled automatic execution of Java applets in an attempt to minimize the impact of Java-based malware threats like Flashback.
This update configures web browsers to not automatically run Java applets. Java applets may be re-enabled by clicking the region labeled "Inactive plug-in" on a web page. If no applets have been run for an extended period of time, the Java web plug-in will deactivate.
As noted by Krebs on Security, the release is notable because it came on the same day that Oracle released updates for Java on other platforms. Apple has long been criticized for lagging on Java updates, a policy which allowed the Flashback malware to flourish as Mac systems remained unprotected against the threat even though Oracle had patched the vulnerability on other systems several months before.
The update Oracle released yesterday, Java 6 Update 33 and Java 7 Update 5, fixes at least 14 security flaws in the oft-attacked software that is installed on more than three billion devices worldwide. Apple’s Java update brings Java on the Mac to 1.6.0_33, and patches 11 of the 14 security vulnerabilities that Oracle fixed in Tuesday’s release. It’s unclear whether those other three flaws simply don’t exist in the Mac version of Java, but we’ll take progress where we can get it.
With Java SE 7 set to come to the Mac later this year, control over updates is transitioning from Apple to the OpenJDK project, with both Apple and Oracle providing expertise to ensure that updates for Mac roll out on a timely basis. That transition was begun back in late 2010, with Steve Jobs noting at the time that having Apple responsible for Java updates on the Mac "may not be the best way to do it."
As we noted on Monday, Apple's new MacBook Air and Retina MacBook Pro use a new MagSafe 2 charging standard that is thinner and wider than the previous MagSafe. In order to assist people using the new machines with older equipment like chargers and displays, Apple released a small MagSafe to MagSafe 2 Converter for $9.99 to ensure continued compatibility.
Apple has not updated its Apple Thunderbolt Display with the new MagSafe 2 standard, but as mentioned on its online store page, the company is now including a free MagSafe to MagSafe 2 Converter with newly-purchased displays.
It certainly is not a tremendous cost for Apple to include a $9.99 adapter (which actually costs Apple significantly less) with a $999 purchase, but it is a convenient inclusion for new purchasers who otherwise might not realize that they need a converter. Those who are aware of the new MagSafe 2 standard should also be aware that they do not need to purchase a separate converter if they wish to purchase an Apple Thunderbolt Display.