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We haven't talked much about the iPhone since we'd rather have our sister blog iPhoneNewsBlog handle it, but after the last week of countless stories about the iPhone being unlocked we've decided to ask the question:

Does Apple care that the iPhone can be unlocked?

According to contract, AT&T will only allow the subsidy unlock code for the iPhone after 3 months of service with AT&T. This means that everyone that bought an iPhone the day they came out SHOULD soon be able to ask AT&T to unlock their iPhone. Unlocking the phone is necessary especially if you are traveling outside of the US since a different carrier's SIM card will be needed to make calls without huge bills.

SInce unlocking the phone will eventually be a reality, we have to think that Apple, as a hardware and software company, could really care less whether or not the Phone was hacked to be unlocked. No matter what network the iPhone runs on, everyone still has to buy an iPhone from Apple.

The only iPhone unlocking hack that isn't considered vapor ware is the physical hardware hack developed by student George Hotz, and that requires that you disassemble the iPhone, have nerves of steel when using a soldering iron and also voids your warranty for sure. None of the other hacks have been released into the wild yet, although different news sources claim that it's real.

We'll see just how serious Apple is about keeping the iPhone locked when the next round of software updates come around. If they care about keeping the iPhone locked down to AT&T, it's possible that those with the software hack might find themselves digging around for that AT&T SIM card again.

So NBC and Apple are in a contract war over TV content on iTunes. Exactly what the real story is depends on who you believe.

Apple says that NBC is asking for exhorbitant price increases for content while NBC claims that Apple refuses to alter it's pricing.

To be honest, all I care about is the fact that the next season of Battlestar Galactica may not be available for download on iTunes! Gah! Time to by an EyeTV I guess...

Music producer extraordinaire and head of Columbia Records, Rick Rubin declared that the iPod will be obsolete once an new music business model is in place. Rubin believes that music subscription services are the future of the Record industry.

In Rubin's future, he predicts that with a subscription type business model, we'll no longer need an iPod because our music library will follow us everywhere. From our car, to cell phone to the TV. Umm... isn't that what we already have in the iPod?

From the NewYorkTimes.com:

You'd pay, say, $19.95 a month, and the music will come anywhere you'd like. In this new world, there will be a virtual library that will be accessible from your car, from your cellphone, from your computer, from your television. Anywhere. The iPod will be obsolete, but there would be a Walkman-like device you could plug into speakers at home. You'll say, 'Today I want to listen to ... Simon and Garfunkel,' and there they are. The service can have demos, bootlegs, concerts, whatever context the artist wants to put out. And once that model is put into place, the industry will grow 10 times the size it is now.

An interesting thought but what about folks who DON'T CARE about having all of those songs and just want some? Surely they're not going to lay down $20 bucks a month for 2 albums worth of music. Although I will say that if this subscription model comes to light, it may finally give you license to the music rather than the media. Currently, if something better than CD ever comes around, we'll be forced to REBUY all of our music to get it on this new format. With Rubin's future voodoo magic imaginatory world, perhaps we wouldn't need to do that.

At any rate, I doubt another format will come out. Music is going digital and thats the end of it. Media is only for long term storage.

Happy labor day!

The title of this article says it all really. The rumors are flying in the far-east and DigitTimes is reporting about it.

The article claims that the "The new iPod video will also come with a wide-screen panel, high storage capacity and Wi-Fi connectivity, the sources indicated. In addition, the new iPod video is expected to be powered by NAND flash, instead of a hard disk drive (HDD)."

There will also be a new iPod nano and iPod Shuffle. The widescreen iPod is being built by Inventec Appliances. The previous iPod was manufactured by Quanta. We wonder what the deal is with the change but it could just be supply and demand taking effect here.

The iPod nano is built by Foxconn and the iPod shuffle by Asustek.

Just how much NAND flash will the new iPod have remains to be seen. Can Apple actually put 60 gigs of NAND flash into an iPod, add in a large screen and wi-fi AND keep it affordable? Maybe. Luckily for us, Wednesday is around the corner!

The rumor mill is swirling as usual the eve of an Apple event. This event will be all about the iPod and we're pretty darn sure we'll see Steve kill off the nano and then bring it back as a new form factor iPod. We're also pretty darn sure we'll see a widescreen iPod video that'll use the same screen as the iPhone and sport Mac OS X at it's heart.

ThinkSecret has a gallery of photos showcasing what the interface will look like for the iPod nano. Really cool stuff! Check it out here.

We'll post a list of sites that will be covering the event in the morning. Until then... sleep well and dream of the new iPod you'll soon own!

These are the sites that will be having live coverage of the Apple Special Event! Well have multiple windows open to see who has the best coverage of the event. Can't wait to see what Steve Jobs and Apple unveil today!  Enjoy!

Steve Jobs showcased the brand new and refreshed iPod line.

Steve started out first with iTunes Ringtones for 99 cents each in addition to the song. 50,000 songs will be available for ringtones. It will sync right up to your iPhone.

The iPod shuffle got Product RED color and new "holiday colors". They start shipping today.

The iPod nano was given a new form factor. Yep it's the stubby iPod pics we all saw previously!
The new iPod nano also has:
Video
Larger, brighter display
Cover Flow
Games
More Storage
Full metal enclosure
24 hours audio
5 hours video
Coverflow
incredibly thin!
4 GB $149
8GB$199

Then he introduced a new model of an old model. Yep. They took the old iPod and turned it into the iPod Classic. The Classic features a full metal design, even thinner than previous iPod, and the new enhanced UI.
80 GB version: 30 hours of audio, 6 hours video $249
160 GB version: 40 hours audio, 7 hours video. 40,000 songs in your pocket! $349
In stores this weekend.

Then the big one everyone's been waiting for: The iPod Touch~!
Featuring the same mult-touch user interface as the iPhone, a 3.5 inch wide screen, Wi-Fi, Safari, YouTube, Facebook, and more!
22 Hours Audio
5 Hours Video
8GB version $299
16 GB version $399
on sale in "just a few weeks". These will ship this month!

[photos from engadget.com]

Not everyone is an iPod fanatic so this article may or may not be for you.

I've bought just about every iteration of the iPod since Apple introduced the 5gig version and I was eagerly awaiting the introduction of todays iPods. Now that they're here.. which iPod will you choose?

I've decided that I won't be getting any of them and here's why. I've already got a 60 GB iPod Video and I already have an iPhone. Basically I really wanted an iPod that had lots of storage space and the wide touch screen like my iPhone. Unfortuantely the iPod Touch is only 16GB max and that's just not going to cut it for my music collection.

What about the iPod Classic? Well, although the new additions to the iPod Classic are cool, such as coverflow and the new UI, I think I can do without them for now. My iPhone has the slickest interface for now and I think I'd want that in my next iPod purchase.

Also, since I've already got an iPhone, the Nano and shuffle seem redundant. I've got just as much memory in my iPhone so I won't be able to store more music and videos.

For now I'll hold out for the next iPod Touch with more storage. Knowing Apple, that can't be too far off into the future.

So which iPod are you pondering to purchase?

Did you miss out on all of the excitement this morning? Well you can relive the moment easyily! Check out the video of todays iPod annoucements right here.

Apple today released iTunes 7.4 for Mac and Windows. The update brings compatibility with the new range of iPods as well as custom ringtones.

From Apple.com:

About iTunes 7.4 for Mac With iTunes 7.4, sync your favorite music and more with the new iPod nano (third generation), iPod classic, and iPod touch, plus create custom ringtones exclusively for iPhone with many of your favorite songs purchased from the iTunes Store. You can now also play purchased videos with closed captioning (when available), easily rate your favorite albums from one to five stars, and watch videos at a larger size inside the iTunes window.

Get iTunes 4.7 for Mac here.
Get iTunes 4.7 for Windows here.

So last night we headed down to the Apple Store to take a look at the new iPods that came in. They had the new shuffles, Phat Nano and the iPod Classic. I've been most interested in the Classic because of the larger storage offerings and battery life. I'd love to get my entire music collection on there.

While demoing the iPod Classic, I played with the Coverflow effect and was really enjoying it, even though it was a bit slow to render the album graphics. I realize it can't be helped but what I found afterwards was a real bummer.

While playing a song on the iPod Classic, I went back into coverflow to switch songs. During my flipping through album covers I noticed the music that was currently playing began to stutter. This can't be right I thought to myself. So I got off of that unit and went to another. Sure enough, same problem. I then tried it on one of the newer Nano's and the problem didn't rear it's ugly head. Seems like this stuttering while playing music and searching coverflow only occurs on the iPod Classic. I will assume that this is due to the fact that the Classic has a hard disk drive and maybe not enough processing power to run both? Hopefully it's just a glitch and can be fixed with a firmware update.

This makes it a bummer for me since I'd love to be able to scroll through the covers of my music while listening to music...

Have you noticed this in your iPod Classic?

We've been trying to track down and tackle the problem of getting dropped connections and bad connectivity via Airport wireless on our LED MacBook Pro Core2Duo running Mac OS X 10.4.10 over the last month. So far we've tried just about everything from downgrading the IO80211Family.kext files to leaving the MacBook Pro plugged into the AC adapter.

So far we've figured out that to keep a wireless connection from dropping, the MacBook Pro needs to be plugged into power. When we use the MacBook Pro without an AC adapter, it isn't IF it will drop it's wireless connection, it's more like WHEN will it drop.

We've also noticed while using the wireless connection, the bandwidth would be inconsistent, often dropping packets or duplicating them. We discovered this after installing MenuMeters and watching how the bandwidth would slow down to a trickle of bytes then speed up then drop again.

At first we thought it might be interference from other devices, so we sat the MacBook Pro down in the same room as the AirPort but we had the same problem. A side by side comparison with another Powerbook G4 showed that MacBook Pro wireless is just not working up to par. The Powerbook G4 ran smooth and fine while the MacBook Pro struggled to load webpage or do domain lookups quickly. A 24" iMac, also running 10.4.10 had none of the problems we exhibit.

Finally we tried using the Terminal app to ping the Airport Extreme basestation from the MacBook Pro. Normally this should have very small latencies but doing this produced dropped and duplicated packets.

It also seems we're not alone in this problem. Taking a look through Apple's MacBook Pro discussion forums shows that many folks are having issues with airport connectivity and are wondering when Apple is going to fix it. Some have come up with hacks, like user Loki who suggested to replace IO80211Family.kext with a newer version but while this seems to work, it actually does nothing to resolve the issues of dropped connections and packets.

One user summed it up like this:

"After reading through what others have to say about the same issue (and boy are there plenty of others sharing my dismay), I have come to realize the MBP just plain ***** in terms of wirless connectivity..."

If anyone out there is having the same issues or has tips on how to get Airport working reliably again, let us know! Until then... I suppose we'll be waiting for an update from Apple and we've got our 20 foot ethernet cable plugged in at all times.

Check out the forums here:

iBook puts MacBook Pro to Shame on Wireless Network?

Is Macbook Pro wireless just plain weak?

Airport random disconnect

Gus Mueller over at Flying Meat Software has a secret project that he finally revealed today. Many suspected that the project he was working on was an image editor, and if you read this interview it probably had you hanging on to find out what it was!

Well Acorn is here and it's a new image editor unlike most. It's main aim is simplicity om the cheap.

Acorn is a new image editor built with one goal in mind - simplicity. Fast, easy, and fluid, Acorn provides the options you'll need without any overhead. Acorn feels right, and won't drain your bank account.

The tiny app is GPU powered and sports a lot of cool features. At $39.95, we can see how this might be really appealing for folks who can't afford Photoshop. Check it out here.

Tired of the song and dance of switching file extensions around so that you can get your custom ringtone into iTunes so it can go on your iPhone? We are too.

Luckily the folks at Rogue Amoeba have come up with a solution: MakeiPhoneRingtone.

This app will get iTunes to recognize your custom ringtones again. Hopefully this won't break with the next iTunes update!

Apple Inc. (AAPL) today released Keyboard Software Update 1.2. Weighing in at 35.3 megabytes you'd hope this update was chock full of surprises but the webpage doesn't list any specific enhancements.

What's New in this Version Install this software to take advantage of your aluminum Apple Keyboard's special features.

Download the new update via Software Update if you have the keyboard or get it here.

Tonight Apple released iMac Software Update 1.1 which had very little documentation as to what it did. All we have to go on is:

"This update provides important bug fixes and is recommended for 20-inch and 24-inch iMac models with 2.0, 2.4, or 2.8GHz processors."

We'll have to wait and see what others say about exactly what this update fixes.

A friendly email showed up in our box today asking us to take a look at a problem that European .Mac users seem to be having. It seems that Europeans are capped at 80kbs bandwidth coming from the .Mac service.

If you're in Europe and experiencing the slow speeds you're not alone. After reading through some of the discussions on the Apple Discussions forum, it seems there are a handful of folks who are experiencing the same problem as our email writer. Many European users seem to have 4mbit and up connections to the internet and have concluded that .Mac may indeed be capped at about 80kbs.

From the looks of things, the problem has been reported to Apple and they are looking in to it. We'll have to wait and see what comes of this. Surely the problem can be fixed we think.

Check out the Discussion Forum over at Apple if you're in Europe and are having these issues as well.

Many Apple Stores have seen the arrival of the iPod Touch since Friday. We picked one up yesterday (Saturday) and will post our unboxing photos and initial reviews later on in the day.

So far, we have to say that this little gadget is one slick iPod. However I do think that Apple is still feeling their way as to not totall canibalize their iPhone sales. There are just certain things the iPod Touch can and can't do. More soon!

Our sister blog has written a short review of their iPod Touch (more like bragging that they've got one). In that review is something I thought was interesting: What's the difference between an iPod Touch and an iPhone?

Here's the run down:

• No blue tooth connectivity
• No cellular radio so theres no Edge
• You can't add calendar events to your Calendar app (lame)
• but for some reason you can add people into your contacts.
• No Mail app
• No link sharing in Mobile Safari
• No Notes app
• No external playback of music
• No external volume buttons
• No camera, so no taking photos on the go.
• No Stocks, Weather or Google Maps widget
• and last but not least, no Jailbreak app (yet) to add more apps to the iPod Touch.
• iPhone maxes out at 8 gigs, the iPod Touch has up to 16 gigs
  

Apple has released a firmware update for the iPod Classic and iPod nano today. The updates are not listed in Apple's software updates list so you'll have to run iTunes in order to get the updates. Apple is very vague when it comes to describing what the firmware fixes. The description says "bug fixes" which probably covers a lot of ground.

So far there have been reports of sluggish coverflow response and a warped stuttering sound while using coverflow and listening to music. Other reports state that the audio in the iPod Classic isn't as good as the 5G iPod.

So far, early reports are saying it fixes some of the sluggishness. We'll see what it does on our brand spankin' new iPod Classic 160 gig unit later on today.

The big news today is that Apple Inc. (AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs got subpoenaed to give a deposition by the SEC. The deposition will be given for a lawasuit against the company's former general counsel involving stock options backdating.

Acording to a Bloomberg report The SEC is trying to get all the information it can against former Apple general counsel Nancy Heinen, who was sued on April 24 for backdating option grants to Jobs and other executives.

We're not exactly sure when this deposition will occur but it's got some Apple investors shaking in their boots because of what could potentially happen during the deposition.

[via Reuters]

Are colored, slimmer Apple notebooks coming soon? That's what rumor sites want us to believe, and we're taking it all in!

9to5mac.com has the scoops from an "industry insider" who tells them all. They aren't sure if it's a MacBook or a MacBook Pro but they did have this info:

• Black aluminum and silver aluminum (like MacBook Pros) have been seen


• They are considerably slimmer than current MacBook and even a bit more than MacBook Pros


• The screen reaches much closer to the edges than current MacBooks but is the same size as current MacBooks - indicating a somewhat smaller footprint


• The keyboards resemble Apple's new Bluetooth Keyboard


• There is something strange about the touchpad (more on this to come)


• They are set to be priced extremely aggressively


• While they are dense, overall they are lighter than the current MacBooks

Seeing as how Apple is slowly getting rid of the white plastic look and moving to the more slick and rigid aluminum enclosures, we wouldn't doubt for a moment that they may introduce a slimed down, aluminum enclosure for the MacBook. When these are released, it will probably catch some by surprise and bum people out, especially if they just bought a MacBook 14 days prior...

For a while now, developers have been told that Apple's upcoming update to Mac OS X called Leopard, would run on Intel processors or a PowerPC G4 (800 MHz or faster) or a G5 processor. While Apple hasn't officially announced it's hardware requirements, it seems that engineers have started to find that Leopard runs "too slow" on 800 MHz PowerPC G4 systems.

In the recent beta "seed" of Leopard to developers, when attempting to install on a 800 MHz G4 system, Leopards installer now claims that it "cannot be installed".

According to the report, Leopard will require an "Intel processor or a PowerPC G4 (867 MHz or faster) or G5 processor. But there were also a few additional requirements: a built in DVD drive, FireWire and at least 512MB or RAM (additional RAM is recommended) and at least 9GB of drive space.

This small change in MHz speed will exclude a slew of Macs, which is sure to disappoint many people.
"I guess it's time to upgrade to something new." said the anonymous writer who sent us the link to the report. "I've gotten by with my 800MHz Powerbook G4 Titanium for a while now... but it's time to upgrade..."

[report via AppleInsider]

We wonder if Apple is ready for a little competition? Amazon.com today released Amazon Launches AmazonMP3">AmazonMP3 (beta) which offers all of its tracks DRM free, between $.89 and $.99 cents. Albums are priced from $5.99 to $9.99. EMI and Universal are both on board this venture as well as a few independent record labels.

Upon first glance the store doesn't offer as much as the iTunes Music Store, but the tracks are all DRM free and encoded at 256 kilobits per second just like iTunes plus, so it might be worth your while to check it out! Click on this link and make us rich... buy some tracks! Check out Amazon Launches AmazonMP3">AmazonMP3 (beta)

Anyone who has recently purchased a MacBook or MacBookPro, theres a new sofware update just for you. MacBook, MacbookPro Software update 1.0 was just released and it fixes a problem wiht Journaling on these units. Some of the machines may have come from the factory with Journaling disabled. This update fixes this issue.

Now if they'd just fix the darned airport issue!