We pity the fool that held any kind of media event today (Adobe, we’re looking at you!), because the Apple juggernaut pretty much ran right over other announcements for this fine Tuesday, October 4. But there was more than just a new iPhone 4S and a release date for iOS 5 going on today. Here’s the latest and greatest from across the internet!
We’ve all been watching the legal tussle between Apple and Samsung over the Korean manufacturer’s Galaxy product knock-offs. Samsung Electronics recently extended Cupertino an olive branch in the hopes of getting their Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet into the waiting hands of Australians, but Apple has roundly rejected that advance, according to a report from Reuters.
“The main reason we are here is to prevent the launch (of the Galaxy tablet) and maintain the status quo,” Apple lawyer Steven Burley told the court, claiming the offer made last week “provided no basis for a settlement.” Sorry, Sammy… better luck next time.
Ironic that Microsoft would choose the eve of the iPod’s 10th anniversary to make this announcement, but it appears Apple stands victorious over the music player market with Redmond announcing the death of the Zune hardware, according to a report from Engadget.
“Windows Phone will be the focus of our mobile music and video strategy,” Microsoft announced in a blog post that was posted, then pulled and then posted again. “We will no longer be producing Zune players.” Probably a wise move, guys.
There’s probably only a few of us who still miss Adobe Flash on our iOS devices, but the company is forging ahead with the technology on the desktop, announcing on their Adobe Flash Platform Blog that Adobe Flash Player 11 and AIR 3 are ready for your downloading pleasure — or misery, depending on where you stand on Flash.
“Today, we’re excited to announce that Adobe Flash Player 11 and AIR 3 will be launching in early October,” writes Tom Nguyen. “These milestone releases introduce the next generation of the technologies that deliver stunning content and apps to over a billion people — across screens including Android, iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry PlayBook, Windows, Mac, and connected TV devices — pushing the boundaries of what’s possible on the web.”
Last but not least, there was some kind of little event happening up in Cupertino, California this morning where a gaggle of Apple executives trotted out the latest and greatest hardware and software for their mobile iOS platform. You’ve probably already read all about it right here on MacLife.com, but if you’d rather see video of the event, it’s time to jump on over to Apple’s website and check it out.
Jeez, with all of this great stuff happening so early in the week, will there be anything cool to write about the next three days? You’ll just have to stay tuned to this channel and find out.
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(Image courtesy of Reuters)
Second-generation Apple TV users, your little black box just got a lot cooler. FireCore has just pushed out a beta 7 update to its popular aTV Flash (black), which brings a host of new abilities to Apple’s otherwise locked-down media streamer — including cloud backups for third-party settings, music playback and metadata views.
FireCore, LLC has announced the immediate availability of aTV Flash (black) beta 7, the latest version of the company’s jailbreak-only solution for adding new superpowers to the second-generation Apple TV. Among the free goodies to be found after installing aTV Flash are third-party applications such as Plex and XBMC as well as a robust Media Player capable of streaming normally incompatible video from a Mac, PC or network-attached storage device.
aTV Flash (black) beta 7 brings three major new features to the table, including music playback abilities now built into Media Player. That means you can stream music that’s not part of your iTunes library, with album art, track info and artist images automatically downloaded from Last.fm. Folder playlists are also supported, and users can navigate away from the currently playing track where you’ll see a “Now Playing” option in the main menu to quickly jump back to your place.
Perhaps the most exciting new feature in beta 7 is the introduction of cloud backups. One of the biggest problems with aTV Flash is that every new update from Apple requires users to start all over again, losing any previous settings for third-party applications. Now you’ll be able to save this settings data to the cloud and easily recall backups whenever you update or restore your device. Backups are tied to your Apple TV serial number, so as long as you don’t change hardware you can quickly get back to where you were before.
Finally, aTV Flash (black) beta 7 introduces metadata views in the Media Player, with three distinct option for viewing. The default view is General, which contains a portion of the synopsis and other information; Synopsis view shows the full description of your movie, while Technical view shows detailed information about the file in question.
Users already running aTV Flash (black) on their second-generation Apple TV can head to the Maintenance menu and select Manage Extras to install the latest beta; new users can purchase now at a discounted price of .95 prior to the official launch this fall, when the price goes up to .95.
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Despite the money and effort being put into Google+, there’s no guarantee that its user numbers will ever rival those of competitor Facebook’s. Part of that effort is providing its members with diversions equal to those of FB, which means Flash games. On this front, Google received a big show of support today from iPad developer iSwifter, who have announced support for Google+ Flash games.
For those unfamiliar with iSwifter, the app developer is currently the only way iPad users can enjoy Flash-based Facebook games on their favorite iDevice. This is accomplished by letting iSwifter’s servers execute all the Flash mechanics and streaming the results to the user’s iPad, in much the same way that OnLive works to bring higher-end gaming to low-end computers.
This is good news for both Facebook and Google, as competition will help make both platforms’ offerings more robust. However, with more and more developers learning the ins and outs of HTML5, will Flash games eventually die out in favor of the new standard? It is, of course, far too early to tell, but we know that Apple is 100% behind HTML5. Arguably, apps like iSwifter diffuse that forward progress by supporting the older Flash environment. How long a lifespan can we expect from Flash, Google+ games update the way they play once HTML5 hits big?
Via VentureBeat
Can’t we all just get along? It appears that where the iPhone 5’s camera lens is concerned, maybe not. Rumors are flying fast and furious that the next iPhone will relocate the LED flash to the opposite side of the handset, rather than cozied up to the lens as part of the same component.
MacRumors is reporting that alleged iPhone 5 camera components have surfaced, shown in the image above with iPhone 4 parts (at bottom). According to Apple.pro via 9to5Mac, the next iPhone rear camera will not have an attached LED flash, but rather a separate module and a new position opposite from the actual camera lens.
The parts suggest that last week’s leak of a purported “iPhone 5G” case showing the LED flash on the right rear side of the device — opposite the camera lens itself — may indeed be a move that Apple is planning for the handset’s fifth refresh later this year.
Apple.pro has provided a mockup of what the back of the next iPhone may look like with the relocated LED flash. Sadly, it looks like we’ll all have to invest in new cases yet again this year… (sigh)
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(Image courtesy of MacRumors and Apple.pro)
The often-maligned Adobe Flash Player may not be Steve Jobs’ best friend anymore, but the developer still wants to be your neighbor — and with the final release of version 10.3, the player now finds a new home in your Mac System Preferences.
MacStories.net is reporting that Adobe’s Flash Player 10.3 is finally out of beta on Thursday, with a new download available on the company’s website. The most notable change with the new version is that Flash Player now takes up a bit of real estate in your System Preferences panel on the Mac, bringing a more Apple-like user experience for those of us with a distaste for the former Windows style.
While the addition of a System Preferences pane is the most visible change, developers also get plenty to be excited about as well, including Media Measurement, which “allows companies to check how their Flash content is distributed on a website, what the audience reach looks like, and other stats.” Acoustic echo cancellation is also on deck, bringing developers “noise suppression, voice activity detection and automatic compensation for various microphone input levels.”
If you’ve ever been frustrated by having to visit Adobe’s website to get the latest version and not being able to be notified when that blessed event actually occurs, automatic updates are now part of the Flash Player System Preferences pane under the Advanced tab. These can be shut off (which Adobe doesn’t recommend), and you can click the Check Now button anytime to see if there’s a new version as well.
Finally, Flash Player 10.3 “integrates control of local storage with the browser’s privacy settings” — for now with Firefox 4, Internet Explorer 8 (or higher, for Windows) and Google Chrome 11. The feature is promised for “a future release of Apple Safari.”
Ready to unleash the Flash goodness? Head over to Adobe’s website and download Flash Player 10.3 today. The 6.07MB Mac OS X version requires 10.4 or higher and an Intel processor and works with Safari, Firefox and Opera.
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(Image courtesy of MacStories.net)
