Even though his Steveness has already said that the iPod Touch is a gaming device and therefore doesn't require a camera, the folks at MacRumors have proved that the original leak that suggested otherwise is indeed true. In other words, not only is there space for a camera in the third-generation Touch should Apple feel the need to put one in there, but whoever leaked the pictures of the iPod Touch with camera was dead on. The only question that remains is whether the leaked iPod Touch with camera was an actual Apple prototype...Now that we've all had a chance to consolidate our music libraries with iTunes 9's new Home Sharing feature, exactly what has iTunes become? Is it still the bloated media player of old? Or has it evolved into something which we can actually use in our day-to-day lives? Has it fulfilled our wildest fantasies and satisfied our deepest desires? In time you'll be able to answer all of these questions for yourself, but for now, Macworld have something to point you in the right direction.
Apparently it seems the internet in general has become the place for people to whinge the most (as opposed to just our friends at whingepool whirlpool), but sometimes the internet can be useful as well. This time around, the Apple Discussion Forums are filled with people who have been complaining reporting that updating to iPhone OS 3.0 or higher has somehow crippled their GPS functionality, rendering it completely useless as it fails to get a proper GPS lock on. There's no real fix yet, but some people have been reporting that a replacement phone fixes the problem entirely.
It may come as some surprise, but over the weekend the 802.11n wireless standard was officially ratified, an astounding six years after it's original appearance. With it comes the news that we can now stream HD content to our media centre of choice, all without unsightly cables littering out hallways and lounge-rooms. Those with existing "draft" hardware can expect to see a firmware update in the near future to enable full compatibility with the finalised 802.11n spec - however, our recommendation is that you don't preform said update over wireless.
The blogosphere continues to rotate, with Gruber posting an article in response to [John] Nack's article on iTunes and 64-bit. That's not the end of this particular merry-go-round, as Nack posted a reply to Gruber's reply to his original post, adding a couple of last-minute thoughts and further musings. It's not actually that confusing to follow, but what it does provide is a good overview of what the big deal about 64-bitness means for applications, as well as the difference between 64-bit Cocoa and 64-bit Carbon.
With iTunes 9 came the arrival of the redesigned iTunes Music Store, which also brought with it iTunes LP. In case you've been living under a rock, iTunes LP is like bringing back the good 'ol days of when you went to a store, bought a 12" record, and came home with a complete music experience, rather than just a series of zeros and ones. Now, with iTunes LP, that complete music experience is back - albeit in the form of zeroes and ones - but when you're getting niceties such as exclusive "makings of", digital booklets and other great tidbits, what's not to love?
MobileMe was also quietly updated within the last couple of days, bringing some very useful (but lesser-known) features. One such feature is the ability to remotely set a passcode lock on your phone - for those times that you *think* you've lost your precious, but don't really know for sure and don't want to wipe it just yet. In addition to this, you also get the ability to sync subscribed iCal calenders, the abiity to merge Safari bookmarks (rather than overwrite), and a couple of others that aren't really worth mentioning here.
Microsoft's crazy CEO, Steve Ballmer, apparently went a little crazy when he spotted one of his (unfortunate) employees using an iPhone at some private company meeting. The story then says he grabbed the iPhone off the helpless employee, put it on the ground, and pretended to stamp on it. Later on in the meeting he also singled out the employee, reminding the now-scarred-for-life employee that he hadn't forgotten him. I wonder why this is news - you don't hear about Steve Jobs berating Apple employees for using Zunes, do you?
Phillips have gone and put a touchpad on a mouse. No seriously - apart from having a name ridiculous enough to rival Asus' own eeePC range, this "mouse" can be used as a normal bluetooth mouse, but when the batteries run out, can also be plugged in via USB, turning it into a normal mouse. The real coup de grâce of this mouse, though, is the fact that the "scroll wheel" (if it can even be called that) acts as a touchpad as well - lift the mouse off the table, and you can move the cursor around simply by moving your finger over the touch-sensitive pad (which usually acts like a scroll wheel, āla the Targus mouse of the same design).
Finally, today's iPhone app is Birdbrain, an app that "takes snapshots of your Twitter account and tracks changes in your friend and follower lists over time". It gives you things like statistics, shows you who has blocked you, and some other cool things as well. From what I can see (because I'm a cheapskate and can't afford the $2.49) in the App Store, it definitely looks the goods. Hat tip to @tcn33 for this one.
Monday Snowmen Grin