Friday Finishing Fools

According to Patently Apple, Apple might very well be working on a thinner MacBook Pro design. How? By doing some pretty funky things with magnets in order to reduce the thickness of the optical drive, essentially making magnets do some of the work that's mechanically done now. If you've ever seen the inside of any current-generation MacBook Pro you'll know that there's very little room to spare inside — Apple can replace current hard drives with smaller, thinner models as seen in the MacBook Air, but as for that optical drive, there's not that much they can do.

At MacTalk we love Australian iOS apps, and Tourism WA has just released an iOS (and Android) app to help you pick and choose what you want to do next time you're in WA. The apps include transport guides and maps, and even features an optional download which allows you to use the app in a sort of "offline" mode.

With nearly one in six dollars of their 28 billion dollar revenue coming from China, it's not a huge leap to say that China is now Apple's second-most important market.

Many websites are posting the story of Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son and his conversation with Tim Cook, where it's reported that Tim Cook excused himself to take a call from his boss, Steve Jobs. That was the day of the iPhone 4 announcement, and the next day, Jobs was gone. If that's not dedication, then nothing is.

The iSuppli teardown of the iPhone 4S has landed, and the bill of materials for Apple's latest iPhone sits at $188, with the most expensive part being mechanical and electro-mechanical parts at $33. The full breakdown is over at the iSuppli website.

A variation on the Mac trojan that pretends to install an updated version of Flash Player is a little more malicious than most. It doesn't do anything to cripple your system immediately, but it does disable the automatic updating system of XProtect, the name of the malware and trojan definitions program, meaning that your system won't get updates about any new versions of malware or trojans.

UTorrent for Mac now brings support for RSS downloads and custom schedules so you say when downloads start and end. While those features are more a feature-parity thing with the Windows version, one thing that is really new is the iPad remote UI that allows you to control your Mac downloads from the comfort of your iPad.

Scribblenauts on the Nintendo DS is pretty great, which, of course, makes the iOS version (called Scribblenauts Remix) even better. Wired says the iPad version is especially fantastic due to the much larger screen — if you haven't played an iOS game in a while, make it this one.

Have Honeycomb-based Android tablets been a sales failure? With just 3.4 million sold to date — less than the number of iPhone 4Ss sold on opening weekend — I would venture "yes".

Perhaps the greatest thing about the new Kindle Fire isn't the fact that it has a colour display, or that it access to Amazon's vast library of digital downloads. Perhaps not even the fact that it's powered by a highly customised version of Android, or that it has a fantastic starting price. No, perhaps the best aspect of the new Kindle Fire is that it'll be able to run Angry Birds. Have an excellent weekend, folks!