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Drag and Drop is a feature that has been around for a long time, and its one of the features I miss the most when I use a Windows machine. It's not that Windows doesn't have drag and drop - its just that Mac OS X has such fantastic drag and drop support - you can do it just about anywhere. Just about anything that can be selected or dragged can be dropped onto another object to make something happen. Its a great time saver. ...

<a href="http://www.mactalk.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/6737828_6c245b49d8_o.jpg.jpeg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-11410" src="http://www.mactalk.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/6737828_6c245b49d8_o.jpg-300x214.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="214" /></a>You know, there are a lot of people who think that that volume slider on the iPhone under iOS 4.2.1 should really be a brightness slider instead. Thanks to some developers with their heads screwed on straight, there's now <a href="http://thebigboss.org/2010/11/29/brightness-switcher-add-a-brightness-slider-to-the-switcher" target="_blank">a little hack from Cydia that either turns the volume slider into a brightness one</a>, or adds a brightness slider to the existing volume one.

MacRumors say the <a href="http://www.macrumors.com/2010/11/30/ipad-closing-in-on-kindle-in-ereader-ownership/" target="_blank">iPad is closing in on Kindle ownership for the eReader market</a>. What does it mean? If anything, it means that the Kindle is actually a heck of a lot more popular than I thought it was.

With our own iPad launch over and done with such a long time ago, it's sometimes easy to forget that other countries aren't so lucky. The iPad is now available in Taiwan, Denmark, Portugal, South Korea, Czech Republic, Sweden, Norway, Hungary and Finland, <a href="http://www.razorianfly.com/2010/11/30/ipad-now-available-in-taiwan-denmark-portugal-south-korea-czech-republic-sweden-norway-poland-hungary-and-finland/" target="_blank">thus completing the worldwide launch of the iPad</a>.

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<img style="float: left;" src="http://www.mactalk.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/iphonedonot-exist.jpg" border="0" alt="What if iPhones did not exist?" width="245" height="450" />
Last time, we looked posed the following question to our MacTalk writers:

<em>Tomorrow, every iPhone on the planet explodes for some strange reason (probably related to an iOS timezone bug). What's the next phone you pick up? Why?</em>

<a href="http://www.mactalk.com.au/2010/11/29/mactalk-roundtable-the-iphone-doesnt-exist-what-now-12/">We saw opinions from Anthony, Matt, Athol, Toby &amp; Iain.</a>

Here's what the rest of the group had to say.

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<a href="http://www.mactalk.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/3323110_12e2d4a1e3.jpg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-11404" src="http://www.mactalk.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/3323110_12e2d4a1e3-241x300.jpg" alt="" width="241" height="300" /></a>In a country where the iPhone is easily acquired and able to be legitimately unlocked, sometimes it's easy to forget those who aren't as fortunate. Which is kind of why the Dev-Team have come through again and <a href="http://blog.iphone-dev.org/post/1718400992/ultra-recycle" target="_blank">released a free carrier unlock for iPhone 3G and 3GS owners</a> with a baseband later than 05.13.04, really.

For a lot of companies, brand loyalty is something that means a lot to them. It should really come as no surprise, then, that <a href="http://thenextweb.com/mobile/2010/11/29/in-the-smartphone-market-apple-users-remain-the-most-loyal/" target="_blank">Apple users are some of the most loyal</a>, especially in the smartphone market.

Computerworld think that 2011 will be the year Apple kill the optical drive, just like they did with floppies all those years ago. They provide some pretty evidence to support their theory, <a href="http://blogs.computerworld.com/17430/2011_will_apple_kill_the_optical_drive" target="_blank">so go over and have a read</a>.

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<img style="float: left;" src="http://www.mactalk.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/iphonedonot-exist2.jpg" border="0" alt="iPhone doesn't exist. What now?" width="163" height="300" />

If you're reading MacTalk right now, there's probably a pretty good chance you own an iPhone. You'd probably also be aware of how the iPhone has completely changed the landscape of the mobile market since its introduction. Ever since the iPhone brought the concept of the touchscreen phone into the mass market, manufacturers have been converting their hardware designs away from buttons and into touchscreens. Away from system apps (or no apps), and into an explosion of developer-built apps that extend the functionality of the phone in all kinds of brilliant ways. I think it's entirely fair to say that if the iPhone never existed, mobile phones would not have accelerated at nearly the same pace.

With the recent launch of Windows Phone 7, more than a couple of people I follow on Twitter had definitely expressed some interest in checking out the new platform, and I have to say I'm pretty curious to try it myself. It got thinking more about what people's backup option would be in the mobile phone market.

So I posed a question to the other MacTalk writers here:
<blockquote>Tomorrow, every iPhone on the planet explodes for some strange reason (probably related to an iOS timezone bug). What's the next phone you pick up? Why?</blockquote>
Here's what I got back.

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<a href="http://www.mactalk.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/1144949_e32682edd3_b.jpg.jpeg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-11380" src="http://www.mactalk.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/1144949_e32682edd3_b.jpg-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" /></a>With all the focus on Mac these days it's sometimes easy to forget that Apple make products for people on the other side of the fence as well — including AirPrint. Mac users have Printopia to activate AirPrint on their not-officially-supported printers, and now <a href="http://www.9to5mac.com/38011/activate-airprint-on-windows" target="_blank">Windows users have the aptly-named AirPrint Activator</a>.

"The Glif is a simple iPhone 4 accessory with two primary functions: mounting your iPhone onto a tripod and propping up your iPhone at various angles." The really good news is that <a href="http://studioneat.myshopify.com/products/glif-for-iphone-4" target="_blank">it's available for the public to buy right now</a>, but the bad news is that it won't be shipping for another 2-3 weeks.

It seems as though people are thinking up new and exciting ways to link iPads with desktop machines, and the iPad controller for Pro Tools is no exception. <a href="http://www.protoolerblog.com/2010/11/23/ipad-controller-for-pro-tools/" target="_blank">V-Control allows you to control Pro Tools from the comfort of your multi-touch iPad</a>, but what's really interesting is that the iPad hasn't yet been released in Sweden.  That I did not know.

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It's only a matter of time before the iPads we waited for are made completely obsolete, replaced by the even-more-magical ‘iPad 2’. What, may you ask, will this new device offer? The biggest news to come out of the rumour mill this weekend claims there will be five tentpole features in the second-generation tablet: “video phone, better mobility, USB port, new display technology and 3-axis gyroscopes.” Arnold Kim notes most of these features are expected, except the USB port, which comes as a surprise to all (Next iPad to Add Five New Features including USB Port? – Mac Rumors).

TechCrunch reporter MG Seigler has a far more reliable and exclusive scoop on the next generation iPad too, compressed into tweet form. Definitely worth checking out (MG Seigler – Twitter).

For a slightly more serious opinion on what ‘iPad 2’ will bring, Ryan Block has a piece on the feasibility of a retina display on the 9.7" device. He suggests “it's crystal clear where Apple WANTS to go with their displays. If Apple could create a proper Retina display for the iPad at an affordable price, I have no doubt they'd do it in a heartbeat. But for 2011 I'm just not so sure we're going to get an iPad with a display and hardware capable of that resolution.” (If the iPad 2nd-gen gets a Retina display, what will the resolution be? – GDGT).

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Apple's Black Friday Sale is rocking on right now with BRAIN SNAPPING BARGAINS (for Apple). Shave a couple of bucks off Apple gear that normally isn't discounted. Enjoy the usual free and fast shipping from the Apple online store too. Plus any purchases made using this link support MacTalk! ...

<a href="http://www.mactalk.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/101205jobsfaces3_500x391.jpg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-11327" src="http://www.mactalk.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/101205jobsfaces3_500x391-300x234.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="234" /></a>Apple hiring RIM enterprise staff probably means they <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703572404575634761834100830.html" target="_blank">haven't totally killed off the enterprise market just yet</a>, even with the imminent demise of the enterprise-level Xserve.

The newest Twitter client on the block for Mac OS X is Kiwi, which recently reached 2.0 status. It's feature packed and now supports multiple accounts, but the million dollar question --<a href="http://www.macworld.com/article/155950/2010/11/kiwi_2.html" target="_blank"> is it good enough to topple the somewhat-long-in-the-tooth but-still-just-as-awesome-as-ever Tweetie</a>?

What do you do with more than $20 billion dollars in in cash? Why, you go and buy your competitor's land, that's what! <a href="http://www.9to5mac.com/37842/apple-buys-hps-cupertino-campus-for-around-300m" target="_blank">Apple recently bought HP's 100 acre campus in Cupertino</a> for around $300 million. What on earth are they going to do with all that space?

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