Generally they release more than one item when they have a big day like today.  So the question is what else aside from the tablet can we expect?

Coverage begins in 1 hour.

Update 1230 pm : It’s called the “iPad”.  Really? iPad? Why do I think of feminine products?

Steve Jobs and the iPad

Quote from Engadget:

Okay, so in theory you’re going to announce a tablet computer on Wednesday. Many are saying that the tablet will run on the iPhone OS. All well and good, except for one thing.

Say it does run on the iPhone OS, meaning we get the iPhone Safari app with it. Will it include Flash support? Because if not, and the internet app (and the ONLY internet surfing app Apple allows on the iPhone) STILL doesn’t come with the ability to watch videos, play games, do just about ANYTHING, etc. from the internet while my 2 year old laptop does all of this just fine?

Well, that’s (likely) 600 bucks I can save right there. I mean, I have a device crippled from real internet usage in my pocket already from you and we’re all good.

Just throwing that out there for you to consider, Apple.

Out.

Want Turn by Turn on your iPhone from ATT?

Try paying $9/month! For an application.  Lets see, I pay for the data plan, the 450 minutes phone plan, and then cause SMS is not considered data…(go figure) I pay for unlimited SMS which comes out to about 100 bucks a month.  Now you’re telling me you’re going to sell an application and charge a montly fee of nearly 10 bucks a month?!  Screw you AT&T.

For non 3gs phones only you can now jailbreak your iphone. Check it out http://blog.iphone-dev.org/post/128573459/ultras-now . Ultrasn0w also lets you jump carriers.

Including wetwired’s own Prax. Someone asked “How can we be in a recession if people are standing in line to buy a new iphone?”. I replied.. “your tax dollars at work.”

In just under 2 hours we’ll find out if Apple is releasing a new phone and we’ll find out about when the new iPhone OS is being released.   I’ll update here with information as it comes available.

Prax has been testing the iPhone OS 3 for a couple months and has found that the 3g portion is more reliable and seems to work better than it did before.

Update Highlights:

New 15″ Macbook, 7hrs battery life.
Has SD card slot
$1699 price

Note: Apple store is down right now for updates.

Macbook 13″ is getting a professional upgrade starting at $1199

Software Updates:
New version of OSX Snow Leopard will have exchange support, updated finder
Reduced footprint after installing (6GB) I think part of this is them removing some of the legacy support.
Handwriting recognition for the trackpad. (That’s cool).
Safari 4
Coverflow to browsing history
64bit Leopard – all major apps will run 64bit (so faster right?)
Better Tread orgaization for multi-core CPU’s
Easier to put on a windows network
Wow ($29 upgrade for those on Leopard.  Now that’s nice).

iPhone3G

OS 3
Yay, cut and paste!
undo support (ye old cntl-z style)
Landscape mode for other typing apps (notepad or txt msg for instance)
MMS Support (take pics or video and send them)
ATT ready for MMS at end of Summer. That’s right, they need till then to think about getting it ready…(kinda like how 3g still sucks here in Austin.)
Tethering over USB no wireless hack that drains battery faster…but you can use bluetooth (me thinks ATT is not keen on this one)
“Find my iPhone” you can login to mobile me and it will show you where your phone is (GPS/Cell Technology). You can send a message to your phone if its in silent mode from mobile me login and it will play ie – if its under a counch.
Remote Wipe (you can wipe your personal data off the phone if its lost/stolen)

JUNE 17th OS 3.0 will be out.

Apps
GPS – TomTom navigation for iPhone
Including a iPhone TomTom kit – has a dock, window suction cup, charges iphone while docked
Zipcar (car sharing; kinda interesting, website is timing out right now).
Unlock zipcar from app
Star Defense
Airstrip Technologies (Monitor Patient Data on Devices)

New iPhone 3Gs
Faster! 2x faster than iPhone 3g for loading apps (faster processor on this guy now)
3MP auto-focus camera (its on the back not the front)
Macro Shots – better low-light scenario (it really needed that)
Video Capture
Voice Control (nice to have)
Digital Compass built in – turns maps to where you are standing direction wise.
Improved Battery Life
5hrs talk, 9hrs wifi internet

$199 for 16GB and $299 for the 32GB version

Dropping the cost of the 3g to $99 bucks.  And new iPhone 3Gs out on the 19th.

So about a year ago, I bought my Macbook.

It wasn’t my first notebook- I’d owned a Dell before then that was quite a nice machine. This one was bought for the purposes of doing podcasting (which, I admit, has been slow of late but we’re retooling the podcast so give it time) and other stuff, as well as the opportunity to learn more about a system and OS that I had little experience in.

So, I’ve had it for a year now. My thoughts?

Well, it’s not a bad little system. This thing runs certain games well (including 3D gaming, on an integrated chipset no less), and save for some frustration early on with the system’s touchpad (resolved by using a mouse instead) it’s done pretty well. I’ve upgraded the hard drive and the memory, and it runs like a champ.

I even installed VIsta on the machine through Boot Camp. Well… okay, first I installed XP, then wiped it, installed Vista, went back to XP and then back to Vista. Naturally, I rarely use the Windows OS on this thing now.

I have noticed some other things about the system. First, I can’t believe Apple hasn’t gone ahead and licensed out the magnetic power connection to other companies for some huge bank already. I mean, that’s saved my ass countless times now when I’ve moved the system and forgot to disconnect the power.

Second, iTunes runs just about perfectly on this system. On my older notebook and on my file server (the functional remains of what used to be a decent desktop), iTunes was always a bit buggy and slow. Not so on this bad boy. I never really have any problems using it and playing music on this system. Naturally, my iPod and iPhone also play much nicer with this system than the PCs.

Podcasting is simple as hell on this thing, too. Pylorns and I have both done some extensive work on the Wetwired Podcast using our notebooks, and it’s been a breeze. I’ve learned how to edit on the fly, and mixing is easy enough.

Now, much as I’d prefer for this to be a total lovefest, there are some drawbacks.

First off, let’s face it. Paying 1600 bucks for a system with the specs that this one had at the time of purchase was a bit tough to swallow. That, of course, didn’t include the $200 in upgrades and the 3 year warranty that came from Best Buy (which I ONLY bought because of the accidental damage protection that Best Buy offers and Apple doesn’t- another drawback.). When you include those, the system comes out around $2100.

There’s the fact that although the fan doesn’t often have to run on the system, when it does it sounds like a Harrier jet taking off.

Finally, there’s the fact that owning this thing makes me one step closer to being a total douchenozzle. I can temper that with the fact that I was THIS close to buying another Dell at the time, and the reason I bought this one was because there was a legitimate hardware upgrade on this one that the Dell didn’t have. (Stereo Mix recording capability on the sound card, in case you’re wondering.)

Overall, I’ve been quite pleased with the system despite some issues. It’s not a perfect system, and any Apple fanboy who tells you that it would be is drinking too much of the Kool-aid. It is, however, a pretty damn good system.

That being said, my next system is gonna totally be a kick-ass desktop PC. Gotta keep my geek cred, after all. Plus, I’m not quite ready to turn in the t-shirt for a turtleneck and a snooty countenance just yet.

Out.

Worried about this virus? Here’s a hint, don’t surf strange websites and then click on popups. Don’t open attachments from people you don’t know or trust.. and yeah, scan files with your anti-virus.  Do those things and you won’t get it.

Or you could run Linux or wait.. who is the bane of Microsoft lately? Oh I know.  Apple.  That’s right fan boys here is the shout out you need – guess who doesn’t have to worry about the April Fools day virus on their computers.  Apple.

Course I can see the irony tomorrow when the headlines are “millions of infected conficker worm PC’s perform a Denial of Service (DoS) on Apple’s websites and itunes.”  Oh the humanity…  evil snicker.

Anywho, if you want to know more about the virus go here.  (Its symantec’s site)

That’s right, I downloaded the beta version of Windows 7 today and successfully loaded it on my macbook.  Driver installation is interesting though because Apple has not created a bootcamp version of drivers.  In fact if you try to load bootcamp disk from your Leopard disk you’ll get a message that says it is not compatible.  But never fear you can browse the DVD and install the drivers manually (most of them).

I had trouble with the 64bit version, and I had downloaded from newsgroups instead of directly from Microsoft so I pulled down the x86 non 64bit version today, the install was fairly quick – 25 minutes or so.  I have a 2Ghz dual core Macbook with 2GB Ram to give you basis.

By default the wireless works out of the box.  The sound, on the other hand does not.  It even looks like it should because the speaker icon is down there next to the clock but it doesn’t.  The trick is to browse the leopard DVD and find the IDT Signa Tel Setup – run it.  Your sound will work.  You also need to browse to the Apple folder and run the track pad and various installers – you may notice that they seem to run but nothing actually comes on the screen – this is because they are installers that were meant to show up in the Bootcamp install menu and not stand alone.  But It does seem to install ok.

I’ve tried pointing Windows 7 to the Intel Ethernet driver folder but it doesn’t install and I’ve tried running the other installers but for some reason the base Ethernet does not install.  Which I have seen others that have had similar problems.

Of Interest:

The rating of performance is extended to 7.9 now.  You may remeber in Vista the score goes from 1.0 to 5.9.   I’m guessing they are accounting for the newer hardware on the market now.

As you can see my base score is a 2.0 – This is because the hard drive is a 5400 RPM Sata drive – I may update the drive in the future to a larger 7200 RPM drive.  It is interesting that drivers have been updated as we all know that this model black Macbook has built in Intel 915G graphics which are not known for being great- but they got a better score in Windows 7 than they do in Vista from what I recall.


The whole system runs faster than Vista.

The task bar is a bit strange as it runs as icons instead of little bars or sub bars.

Internet Explorer 8 – pretty much the same as 7.

The install by default is a fairly large footprint.  I setup a 10GB partition using bootcamp and it took up damn near all of it – I have 1.45 GB free after the install with no programs installed.  By normal standards that’s fine because most new computers are coming with 500GB drives or 1TB drives.  But for netbooks it’s a bit large.   The download of course is Windows 7 Ultimate so that could be part of it – but I also didn’t notice an option to choose to remove items during the install even though I chose the custom option.

Update: Atheos commented in the comment section and provided a solution for getting bootcamp to install.  Thanks very much, I’m including your answer here in the post proper.

Attention: You CAN use the normal Boot Camp installer located on the Leopard DVD. Trying to do that directly will probably give you error 2229 BUT you can just copy the “Boot Camp” folder on your hard drive and replace the BootCamp.msi and BootCamp64.msi packages with the ones from here (big thanks to limo79 for this!): http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=6908029&postcount=216

The fix includes support for 32 and 64 bit versions as well as Boot Camp versions 2.0 and 2.1. I did that on my early 2008 MBP with Windows 7 x64 and *everything* works perfectly (ethernet, iSight, WLAN, keyboard backlight…), including the F-keys (volume, eject etc.) and the Boot Camp Control Panel. No need to run the separate installers. I advise getting the display driver directly from Nvidia site and if there is no sound you can also downoad newer driver from Realtek site. You might want to include this information in the post as an update.

Very cool.

Since I have their advertisement on the site and I use the product I thought I’d pass along some savings.  If you’re a fan of zagg invisible shield products go here. Buy a full cover for your iPhone or other gift and you can get 30% off whatever you’re buying by entering the code “sitewide30″.

The offer ends the 31st.

Here is the video of the scratch proof. Yes, I’ve tried this myself after I put it on – its not fake advertisement.

Their products have been featured on CNN as well.

Well sports fans its me again your friendly iPhone junkie to bring you an update on whats happening in the world of iPhone hacking.  I have managed to drag myself away from WoW long enough to write a post, So let’s go….

Break these chains…

The big news that hit today is our favorite iPhone hacking group has finalized a hack to allow us 3G users to use our iPhones on different carriers, other then ATT.  This hack, known as a software unlock, updates the basic software that controls the telephone portion of your phone to allows it to talk to other networks.  This is pretty big news, it gives you the option to take your iPhone overseas with you and plug in someone else’s SIM (Subscriber Identification Module) into your phone and use it on their network.  This isn’t just for you globe trotting folks either, you can use say a T-Mobile SIM in your iPhone or any other GSM provider either here in the US or abroad.  So say goodbye to those huge ATT bills and unlock your iPhone and take it someplace cheaper.

The update that had to crash the party…

Apple has been dancing around ways to try to disable ways to pwn the iPhone for a while now but this time they took some pretty drastic action.  With the recent release of 10.5.6 Apple has found a way to thwart would be jail breakers at the OS level.  When the update is applied to a 10.5.5 makes it so the machine will no longer recognize the iPhone in what we call DFU mode, or restore mode.  So if the computer can no longer recognize the phone in this state, it renders any software talking to the phone useless.  Of course by now the small army of iPhone hackers out there are already hard at work at finding a way around this, it should only be a matter of time before the adopters of this newest update can enjoy a nice jail broken phone.

So long and thanks for all the swag…

Normally when I write on this blog its mainly about the iPhone and iPhone related news, but today I want to take a break from that and give tribute to a long standing event that as of this morning has its days numbered.  Earlier today, Apple computer issued a press release stating that they would be pulling out of Macworld, a long standing Apple/Mac OS trade show. And the upcoming one that is scheduled for early next year (2009) will be the last that Apple computer will be attending or putting on.  I understand their reasoning behind not wanting to spend the enormous amount of money that comes with putting on a show of this size, but it also saddens me as a computer user.

Let me impart to you some of my history with computers, I grew up using Mac’s in my household, since I was 3 years old when I started using a Mac 128k in my dad’s study I knew I would be using computers for the rest of my life. After getting into computers, I wanted to learn more about new an exciting products and technologies, this info was usually presented by Apple in the form of trade shows, Macworld being the largest.  So every year about this time I would start to keep a weary eye on the mailbox, and eventually the web, in hopes to find some information about what Apple could be releasing that year at Macworld.  Even in my later years when I switched over to the world of Start Menus and keystrokes like Ctrl-Alt-Delete, I would still watch the keynotes of Macworld while sitting at my desk in front of my Windows machine and talk to my dad over AIM while they were going on to discuss the latest and greatest  from the fruit flavored company.

So to you Macworld and Apple I would like to thank you for all the great product annoucments and memories you have provided me over the years, from the newton to e-world, Mac OS 6-10, and of course the iPhone.  Thank you for always putting on a great show and keeping me on the edge of my seat waiting to hear about your next new rabbit you are pulling from the proverbial hat.  As a sidenote in the same press release Apple said Steve Jobs, the turtle neck man himself, will not be giving the keynote this year, this is most likely due to his declining health , I wish you well Mr. Jobs, and hope to hear many more annoucments from you in the future via webcasts.

I was having a hard time finding a good application that allowed me to migrate my bought music to my other computers in my house or in my car or on my non-apple music players.  I found a great program called Requiem that helped me out by removing the DRM on those specific songs.  You see I’m the firm believer that I don’t want to “rent” a song or application from a company I want to own it and take it to any computer without having to worry if I have to authorize one of my other computers to be able to play it.  Not only that I really dislike iTunes as a player.  I’d rather use another software application.

Anyway one of the drawbacks is that if you’ve already updated to iTunes 8.02 or greater you’re screwed.. well just about.  You basically need to stay at 8.01 iTunes and Requiem 1.8.2 will decrypt these files for your personal use on your other devices.

You may be asking “where can I get requiem?”.  Try the pirate bay.  Yes, that’s right.. bit torrents.  Seach for “requiem itunes” and you’ll come across it.  I suggest scanning the zip file for viruses as well – I didn’t find anything but I also don’t trust stuff from bit torrents.

Disclaimer: Wetwired does not suggest sharing any copywritten music.  The staff at wetwird do not, nor should you.  As an added bonus if you were to crack the DRM your personal information is still stored in these files so if you were to share them with someone else that information will flow back to Apple and guess who will be out?  Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

The 2.2 release has been put out for iPhone users to download, and there are some new features on some apps. A quick ‘n dirty review below:

- Google Streets view in maps feature: This is incredibly cool. I’m not a major user of the street views online, but having it on the phone is really nifty- and kinda creepy. I looked up my grandmother’s address, and it pulled up just fine complete with a 360 degree view of her neighborhood. Just seemed… yeesh.

- Google Search relocated in Safari browser: Others are calling this an excellent adjustment to save screen real estate in the browser. I say… meh. I mean, it’s nice and all. Just not a huge change like others are saying.

- Podcast Over-the-air Download capability in iTunes: Okay, this one’s really nifty. They’ve finally added podcast downloads over wifi on the iPhone, and I love it. Now, if I want to get the latest episode of a favorite podcast and I’m not at home to get it, I can do so from my phone. Very convenient, very cool. I’ll be using this one.

Overall, some nice additions to the software- and yes, this means I killed the jailbrake I’d done to the phone a while back to get these updates. I can live without the jailbrake, to be honest. It killed battery life, had serious bugginess and I dropped calls with it. All of these problems were less severe once I went back to Apple’s firmware.

Out.

I’ll be updating today as we get more information as many of you know we’re waiting for the unveiling of an update to the Macbook Line.

 
If you check the apple store you’ll see that it’s currently down:

Pre-Conference Rumors and pictures here at apple insider.

Update picture from engadget

Gizmodo has a live feed of this as well.
Pic from Gizmodo:

Apple outgrew the market for 14 months, 17% Market Share now.

Verification notebooks are made from a solid piece of aluminum now. Start with 2.5LB piece of metal end up with a quarter pounder with cheese.  er 1/3 Lb notebook base.

Now on to the nVidia chipset stuff.

GeForce 9400M – pretty fast… 3x to 8x performance increase

Whoa, multi-touch glass touchpad.

There is no button?! The buttons are setup in the software for customization, that is strange.

Run Down of Features:

Glass TouchPad
All aluminum
Connectors all on one side
Thinner Display
KB buttons are backlit
LED – Backlit display – less battery power
Magnetic latch
Sudden motion sensor
isight/mic (usual)
Mini display port that drives any type of connector with an adapter (sold separately of course…)
5 hours of battery life when using the Nvidia 9400 4 on the 9600 

Price Points:

Macbook Pro: 
15.4 Inch $1999 2.4 GHZ 2GB RAM
15.4 Inch $2499 4GB RAM

Update to the MacBook Air – new Nvidia 9400M 120GB drive, 128GB SSD and a Mini display port.

24″ Cinema Display LED
3 connectors
1920×1200 Resolution
$899 (I can buy a 24″ Benq display for $400. )

$999 for entry level macbook. 
$1299 Better stuff
$1599 the bestest
New Macbook Aluminum Body
LED- Backlit
Nvidia Graphics
Multi-Touch Glass touchpad
Mini-Display Port

3d gaming on a Macbook is now possible - meaning you can get reasonable performance out of these things now.

Ok www.apple.com and check out the videos.

I’ve written before about how they took care of me only after a run around for a couple of freaking screws. I’ve long held the belief that their store support was far superior to the support you get on the phone and the same holds true today after I picked up my out of warranty MacBook.

The corner palmrest of my MacBook had gradually cracked in a tiny area on the right hand side.  Search google and you’ll get over 2,000 results for cracked palmrests and most of it is on the right side, right where the palmrest meets the base of the unit.  I had super-glued the thing back to hold it but since I was out of warranty I figured I would just have to live with it.   That was until I was growing tired of it rubbing on my wrists, cause you know if I wanted to slit my wrists I could think of far better ways to do it…

Anyway I read that many people have recieved the problem only months after buying their macbooks and that others ended up not having the problem until a year or so later because they didn’t use it as much or baby’d it.  I fell in the later, I use my MacBook just about every day but I’m also very protective over it.   Many online stated that they got the palmrest replaced even though they were no longer under warranty because of it being a manufacturing defect/saftey hazard type of thing.  So I called support.

No help there aside from asking me to go into the Apple store and that most likley they’d replace it.  So I did.  I drove up to the Domain store here in Austin, after making an appointment with a Genius.  Useful Tip: Watch your name up on the board behind the Genius Bar. You should see it, and you’ll notice that they call out people, I was there listening and watching their every move and they never called my name, but one minute my name was on the board, the next it wasn’t.  I walked up and the guy said, “Well someone just canceled it.”  “Uh no… how could I cancel it, I’ve been standing here for 20 minutes..”

Long story short, he took my MacBook, promised it the next day (today) had me sign the “we’re not responsible for data loss” waiver and low and behold I got a my MacBook back today, no charge, new palmrest/keyboard/trackpad.

That is two times that, while I had to make  a total of 4 physical trips, the Domain Apple Store took care of me,  and regaurdless of the total shitty phone support, will continue to keep me as a loyal customer.