Before we get to this week’s breathless rumors about the next iPhone (yes, there have been online sightings via T-Mobile in Austria, a report from Australia that the current 16 GB model is end-of-life, and reports that AT&T is running out of stock), I thought I’d share a bit of a conversation I had with a friend of mine. As I’m involved in writing and research a lot of different technology (and especially Apple-related gear), I get a lot of questions from friends and family about both buying advice and and tech support, and a friend of mine who is looking to replace his iBook G4 was wondering which direction to go for a family-oriented desktop–Mac mini or 20-inch iMac. Here’s how I broke it down for him:

Mac mini: The appeal of this machine is its size and price–at $600 for the entry-level machine you’re getting a decently powerful processor and much better graphics than previous incarnations. But the gist of the minimalist Mac mini is that you’re going to have to add a few things (monitor, keyboard/mouse) if you don’t have them lying around already. Since the latest Mac mini still doesn’t have an HDMI output, you’ll need to be mindful that any monitor you add includes a DVI connection (and one with HDCP copy protection, so that you can enjoy worry-free viewing of iTunes content). Since my friend wasn’t looking for a large screen size, I suggested this 22-inch Dell monitor.

Additionally, since the entry-level Mac mini only comes with 120 GB of hard drive space and 1 GB of RAM, I recommended an external hard drive (1 TB models are super cheap these days) for both backup and media storage as well as upgrade RAM to 4 GB (one of the least expensive ways to ensure you get optimal computing performance, especially with a processor that’s a bit on the slow side). The hard drive addition is easy-peasy, but you’ll need a putty knife, an adventurous spirit, and some helpful guidance. With both the Mac mini and the iMac, I recommended adding an AppleCare protection plan that extends warranty coverage from 1 year to 3 years. So the price (before any taxes are applied) breaks down thusly (all prices noted before any taxes are assessed):

$600 for Mac mini + $200 for monitor + $40 for keyboard/mouse combo + $120 for hard drive + $110 for RAM upgrade + $2.50 for putty knife + $150 for Mac mini AppleCare = $1,222.50

iMac: Now, prying open a Mac mini case with a putty knife isn’t everyone’s idea of fun, and gathering all my recommended equipment might seem like a scavenger hunt. That’s where the all-in-one iMac comes in. Due to price, space and usage consideration, my friend was interested in the 20-inch iMac, and it’s a pretty good choice for a family computer with a faster processor (2.66 GHz) that won’t feel too slow a couple years down the line and more hard drive storage (320 GB) and RAM (2 GB) right out of the box. Knowing my friend’s current usage (music/photo management, elementary-level learning games, web browsing), I decided not to push him to upgrade the RAM immediately. But when he does want a boost (with an 8 GB maximum capacity–double that of the Mac mini), it’s far easier to do the upgrade. And while the hard drive is larger, I still recommended getting an external hard drive as media files will keep getting bigger and bigger and it’s important to back things up. So, here’s the tally with the iMac:

$1200 for iMac + $120 for hard drive + $150 for iMac AppleCare = $1,470

For $250, you’ll get a stronger computer right out of the box with a lot less hassle. However, you’ll definitely save some money going with the Mac mini (and be able to shave even more off the cost if you already have a monitor/keyboard/mouse that you like), and it allows for upgrading your peripherals now and in the years to come (say, when larger HD monitors come further down in price). Ultimately, it comes down to a trade-off between convenience and customization and how comfortable you are in either of those camps.

Alright, let’s get onto news of Apple-y goodness from the week that was…

• In regards to iPhone rumor-mongering, John Gruber at Daring Fireball offers the most complete and cogent rundown of the iPhone hardware that’s likely to be coming out sometime this summer (and announced on June 8 at WWDC). The most intriguing bit of his rundown is the boost in CPU speed (as well as RAM) and how it will make the iPhone feel like a major leap forward.
• An AT&T honcho confirms that the company would consider lowering the price of data plans for the iPhone and other smartphones in its stable by as much $10 a month… as long as there was a ceiling on the amount of data used over 3G connectivity.
• Apple stock analyst Gene Munster has another against-the-grain speculation this week (last week, he took the announcement of Phil Schiller as WWDC keynote speaker to mean that there would be no iPhone announcment) claiming that there will be no Apple iTablet until 2010. Munster believes the device will be priced between $500 and $700 and possibly be subsidized by a cellular carrier. Ars Technica notes that the big hurdle for the iTablet will be blending the OS and the UI of Mac OS X and iPhone OS. But we could perhaps see something earlier as Electronista reports that contract manufacturer Wintek will be providing 10-inch touchscreens to Apple sometime in the second half of 2009.
• Seth Weintraub at Computerworld wonders whether Apple is going to get back into the digital camera game, with Apple rumored to be purchasing both 3- and 5-megapixel sensors for upcoming products. Yes, I wrote “get back into” as Apple indeed once offered a digital camera called the QuickTake with a whopping 640 x 480 VGA resolution back in 1994 (which I totally forgot about).
• Book Talk: My the latest edition of my pal/colleague Jeff Carlson’s iMovie 09 and iDVD for Mac OS X: Visual QuickStart Guide should be shipping sometime next week. Because he’s added so many pages covering the new features of iMovie ‘09 (I’ve gotten a sneak peek and it’s been helpful with my recent initial forays into the software), he and his publisher are offering the iDVD portion of the book as a free download. Another of my favorite authors, Joe Kissell, has updated two of his Take Control ebook titles that are great for folks just learning about the Mac OS X environment as well as provide good reminders for more advanced users. Troubleshooting Your Mac will help you diagnose and fix problems that crop up while Maintaining Your Mac provides daily/weekly/yearly prescriptions to help you avoid trouble (and if you’re housebound on a rainy Memorial Day weekend, it might be a good time to start on the yearly tasks like cleaning the dust from your keyboard, changing passwords, and removing unneeded files).
• Speaking of books, looks like Apple has another snafu on its hands with the rejection of the Eucalyptus e-book reader (which provides free books from the archives of Project Gutenberg). Seems that while the app doesn’t come with any offending material, you could potentially download the potentially offending Kama Sutra. Oh my. Of course, you could download the same title using other iPhone apps, including Amazon’s Kindle app and Stanza. For more on this, see Technologizer, Cult of Mac
• And speaking about the Kindle for iPhone app, it’s been updated with the ability to choose different background and text colors as well as the ability to read in landscape mode (via IntoMobile).
• Much has been made about Boxee and how delicious it is to hack an Apple TV with it in order to gain access to streaming video from a variety of sources (including Netflix), but Joel Johnson at Boing Boing Gadgets has a contrary opinion largely based on the slow processor speed of the Apple TV.
• And finally… if you’ve bought a lot of MacBooks (and I mean a lot) and you’re wondering what to do with the boxes, Gizmodo offers an idea: create a dresser out of ‘em:

  

–Agen G.N. Schmitz

It’s now less than a month until Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), which kicks off with the keynote address at 10am PDT on June 8 delivered by… Phil Schiller and a “team of Apple executives”. Thus, it looks like Steve Jobs is going to remain true to his word and stay away from work until his leave of absence officially ends at the end of June. So that’s one mystery solved with the bigger mystery of the next version of the iPhone still dangling in the wind. Earlier this week, the usually sane/reliable Apple analyst for Piper Jaffray, Gene Munster, took Schiller’s keynote announcement to mean that there would be no iPhone announcement and that the focus of the keynote and the conference would be on Mac OS X Snow Leopard. But, to quote the estimable John Gruber of Daring Fireball, “That’d be goofy.” As he points out:

(I)f there are any new hardware features — like say a video camera or magnetometer — that means new APIs, and if Apple wants to have WWDC sessions for the new hardware-specific APIs, they have to announce the hardware first.

And John Paczkowski over at All Things Digital reminds us that since Apple has pulled out of Macworld, WWDC is the only big event it has to unveil a major new release. My guess of what this may portend is that the new iPhone hardware is just going to receive some incremental bumps to its feature set (i.e., more memory, more imaging megapixels, etc.) and won’t get any new design overhaul (as was repoprted by Hard Mac this morning)–thusly placing more emphasis on the iPhone 3.0 software (which would rightly be the focus of a developer’s conference).

As for the new iPhone hardware, speculation is ramping up that there will be three models based on a snapped pic of Best Buy’s inventory system posted by Phone Arena (via Ars Technica among others), which shows three handsets labeled as “Project Charlie” coming from AT&T (most likely variations in memory size and color).

• In other rumors, Hard Mac also claims that, as per Apple’s yearly refresh cycle, the iPod touch and iPod nano will get new models in September with both also tantalizingly getting cameras (since every mobile gadget that we carry today obviously needs a camera).
• Amazon announced this week that it had created an iPhone-optimized rendering of its Kindle Store (seen at right) for easier browsing of books that you can wirelessly send to the Kindle for iPhone app (link opens iTunes). However, simply typing in the URL for amazon.com/kindlestore into Safari won’t get you there, as that opens up the full Amazon web page. Rather, searching for a title or selecting a category from the iPhone app’s How to Get Books section will open Safari to the appropriate iPhone-friendly template, or by using this iPhone-specific link (note that you’ll get a 404 error on any browser other than Safari on the iPhone).
• This week Apple dropped the OS X 10.5.7 update, and if you found that it produced issues with external monitor resolutions, Andrew Bednarz over at The Apple Blog has some resolutions to your problem.
• Tip of the week: controlling iTunes with just your keyboard from Macworld.
• The SlingPlayer Mobile iPhone app is finally a reality, but it’s a $30 investment (on top of your initial Slingbox/catcher investment). And it only works when connected to a Wi-Fi network, as AT&T confirmed that it was behind the crippling of the app’s use of cellular 3G connectivity (unless you jailbreak your iPhone). For more on how good the app is, check out this hands-on review at Macworld
• Apple and Microsoft continue to duke it out on the airwaves, with Microsoft’s latest Laptop Hunters ad (featuring a second Lauren)…

  …followed up by Apple’s most direct response to date to the LH ads:

• Microsoft also started going after Apple from another angle, with an ad featuring former Apprentice contestant Wes Moss pointing out that it costs $30,000 to fill the “latest” iPod (in this case, the large-capacity 120 GB iPod classic up with music and that the all-you-can-listen Zune Pass subscription (at $15 a month) for the Microsoft Zune player is the more economical way to go. As Dan Moren at Macworld notes, this uses some interesting accounting with each song purchased individually from the iTunes store (no album bundling) and nothing imported from your existing library of CDs. And the rub of the Zune Pass subscription model is that once you end the subscription, all of that music goes away unless you purchase those tracks and albums separately.
• And finally… a very creative use of packing materials from Apple MacBook boxes–a chandelier dubbed the Styrolight, which won the Sustainable prize in Design Within Reach Austin’s M+D+F competition (via Cult of Mac).

  

–Agen G.N. Schmitz

Another week closer to Apple’s WWDC, another week of flying rumors about the next version of the iPhone as well as OS X 10.6 (aka, Snow Leopard). First off, one of the most welcome rumors about the iPhone I’ve seen so far in this run-up is that AT&T might be dropping its monthly entry-level iPhone plan by $10–from $69 to $59 (as reported by several sources). Thats a $120 savings per year, and quite welcome in this down economy. Unfortunately, there’s not much to this rumor aside from the fact that the source–Cote Collaborative analyst Michael Cote–believes it will happen. In other iPhone-related rumors, the Boy Genius Report reports that the new iPhone hardware might have a built-in magnetometer for use with a digital compass. But even more interesting is this tidbit from Crave:

One of the interesting things you can do with a digital compass is introduce augmented reality-type applications, as MacRumors suggests. Mobile augmented reality can use a phone’s camera and compass to let a device capture an image of a location, like San Francisco’s Union Square, for example. Information from the compass would allow names of locations to pop up on top of the image.

On the Snow Leopard side of things, AppleInsider reports that Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard will incorporate support for native WWAN hardware–i.e., 3G cellular connectivity–based on a screenshot of a breakout of networking devices in the system profiler. So, maybe that’s not the juiciest of rumors (as it could just make it easier to use third-party USB dongles and the like rather than built-in 3G chips), but it’s certainly interesting in light of all the buz of an iTablet. Now onto other Apple-y goodness from the week that was…

• Just when I started using Tweetie as my Twitter client for both Mac and iPhone (link opens up iTunes), my old standby Twitterific has come out with version 2.0 software for both Mac and iPhone. I’ll check it out, but I’m leaning toward Tweetie more and more–especially with its threaded conversations to help make sense of replies (hat tip to The Apple Blog).
• The SlingPlayer iPhone app may actually be seeing the light of day as TUAW reports that a search for “Sling Media” in iTunes brings up the name of the company (but nothing beyond that). At least it’s a start.
• I’ve been meaning to finish my Backblaze online backup, but have put it on hold as I decided I needed to first do a bit of clean-up of my MacBook Pro. The Backblaze application is certainly helpful in allowing you to identify folders to exclude on your hard drive, but I noticed that some items that were getting backed up (and thus using precious bandwidth) really didn’t need to be. Cary Bohon over at TUAW has a good suggestion for Mac spring cleaning using OS X’s Smart Folders feature.
• Sascha Segan over at PC Mag writes that the long-rumored Apple iPad (Apple’s tabletized take on a netbook) would certainly outsell the newly released Kindle DX but wouldn’t bother Amazon as much as it would newspaper and magazine publishers.
• The iPhone 3G was bested in sales during the first quarter of 2009 by the BlackBerry Curve 8300 series smartphone–which benefits from multiple models available on all major carriers and, as The Business Insider points out, had the advantage of a two-for-one deal running at Verizon.
• Macworld magazine’s new issue is chock-full of tips and tricks to getting the most out of your iPhone, including 11 ways to sync data (including a way to avoid Apple’s MobileMe’s $99 annual subscription for syncing contacts, calendard and more), ways to utilize the iPhone 3G’s integrated GPS, and some unique uses of the camera.
• While making the rounds at Macworld, I also noticed Rob Griffiths writing about why Firefox is his preferred browser (over Apple’s Safari)–it’s not just the add-ons (which, for me, are indispensable) but also the way it handles URLs (matching keywords that you type, not just auto-completing).
• However, while I don’t use Safari much, it’s still handy for some uses (Flash-heavy sites that are frustrating to dig into with my Firefox Flash-blocker add-on, etc.) and essential for others, including the newly released QuickBooks Online for Mac. Compatible only with Safari 3.1 (not the 4.x beta), it comes in a three flavors (one of them being free) and, as The Apple Blog touts, makes it easy for multi-user accounting tasks. I’m most curious about how easy it will be to share data with my accountant, as the current round-tripping method (from Mac to Win and back to Mac) is cludgey at best. In related financial info, Lifehacker takes a look at the Quicken Online Mobile iPhone app
• Looking for a quick-and-dirty way to share contacts or images between two iPhones? Check out the free Mover iPhone app (which operates over Wi-Fi) over at TUAW, which also posts a demo video that shows just how easy it is.
• Microsoft is doing a pretty good job with its Laptop Hunters ads in kicking up some Mac fanboy dust, but it might want to think twice before it makes Sabretooth angrier–or at least Liev Schrieber, the actor who plays the character in the new X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie, who says he switched to a Mac due to Word’s continued misspelling of his name (via Macworld).
• And finally… a portrait of Steve Jobs by designer Dylan Roscover using the text from the old Think Different ad campaign as rendered in various Apple-related fonts (via Cult of Mac).

  

–Agen G.N. Schmitz

The Apple rumors have been flying fast and furious this week, so let’s sort through what’s been whirling about. First off, USA Today reported that Apple and Verizon were considering joining up for an iPhone offering next year, at which time AT&T’s exclusivity runs out. Now there are certainly many reasons Verizon would love to get on the iPhone bandwagon, but I’m in agreement with folks like my pal, all-things-wireless guru Glenn Fleishman, in being firm in my belief that Apple is not going to be making a CDMA version of its iPhone. For those of you not up on your cellular acronyms, both Verizon and Sprint use the CDMA method of cellular transmission while AT&T and T-Mobile as well as most of the rest of the world uses the GSM standard–thus, there’s a much larger market worldwide for a GSM phone. Additionally, Verizon will be transitioning in the next few years to a new 4G cellular standard called LTE, which makes moving to a CDMA-based provider seem like a waste of time since, as Roughly Drafted put it, “that’s where the puck is, not where it’s going.”

EVDO will be EDGE two years from now. In 2011, Apple doesn’t want to be back in 2007 again. It would be ridiculous for Apple to spend a year developing an EVDO mobile stack so that it could offer potential AT&T switchers a lazier alternative for another year before everyone began wanting a mobile device faster than EVDO or today’s UMTS can deliver.

But then another rumor floated out via Business Week that not only were Verizon and Apple in talks about offering an “iPhone lite” device but that there was a second device in discussion–”a media pad that would let users listen to music, view photos, and watch high-definition videos” that could place phone calls over Wi-Fi. Could this finally be the long-rumored touchscreen iTablet (check out this really cool fanboy concept of a MacBook Touch, seen below over at 9to5Mac) or an Apple netbook? But then came another Rumor that Verizon and Microsoft were chatting up a smartphone rival to the iPhone referred to as Project Pink (for a better read on who’s zooming who, check out this article over at Slate’s Big Money site).

Hopefully we’ll be able to sort out these and other rumors after the keynote at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), which will be held starting June 8.

• Speaking of WWDC, it’s now sold out (and in record time; via Cult of Mac).
• AppleInsider reports that Apple may introduce some cheaper models in response to the growth of netbook sales as well as a counterpoint to the much-discussed Laptop Hunters ads from Microsoft. Another one of the LH series was released this week, this time with the spending limit upped to $2000 to help Sheila get a notebook with a fast processor, big screen and that’s “able to cut video.” She passes on a MacBook Pro because it only has 2 GB of RAM, but as Electronista notes it would only cost Sheila about another $100 to add in another 2 GB.
• In another video follow-up, the SciFi Network’s Dvice blog released more Talking Gadget Theater installments with the computerized voices of the Amazon Kindle and the Apple iPod shuffle taking on more hallowed scenes from the sci-fi geek canon: Empire Strikes Back (”I’m your father…”) and Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan (”Khan!”).
• AppleInsider traffics in another rumor in which the upcoming version of QuickTime X Player will support direct upload to YouTube.
• MacRumors forum posters noticed that the latest iTunes 8.2 beta version released to developers included code that could point to support for the reading/recognizing of Blu-Ray discs (though Betanews throws some cold water on this).
• Based on a patent filing, Ars Technica reports that Apple might move to notebooks made of carbon fiber–which would be much lighter than aluminum.
• If you run multiple iTunes accounts (as I do), the iPhone 3.0 software looks like it will be adding the ability to switch between accounts on the iPhone (currently, you have to switch accounts using the iTunes desktop software).
• A couple weeks back, it was reported that AT&T had altered its terms of service to make the use of a video-shifting applications (such as the in-development and nearly ready-to-release SlingPlayer Mobile iPhone app) not kosher. After that reporting, AT&T backtracked and pulled the language, but Electronista reports that it’s back in there.
• If you live in the Seattle area, the local alternative weekly The Stranger has released its first iPhone app. The free Cocktail Compass (link opens iTunes) supplies a list of nearby bars (based on your GPS coordinates) that are hosting happy hours, as well as offers the ability to sort for features such as billiards and allowed dogs and an easy call for a cab at the end of the evening.

• And finally, some questions to ponder this weekend: Will Palm spoil the next iPhone’s coming out party by releasing its Palm Pre the day before the WWDC keynote address? Will Disney/ABC’s acquiescence to joining Hulu (which was created by NBC and Fox to compete with iTunes) with its 30 percent buy-in ultimately kill the iTunes Store? And will Hulu release an iPhone app?

–Agen G.N. Schmitz

Pretty much everyone tap-tap-a-tapping away at a keyboard has noticed how the standard black, silver and blue colors that have dominated personal computing over the years have been challenged recently. On the PC end of things Dell has led the way recently with its splashy Design Studio laptop models, while Apple broke the color barrier ahead of the curve with the iMac, iBook and AlumaMax. But this has been all on the outside. Unfortunately there has been far less color on the inside of things, where the majority of us have the most contact with our boxes. Sure there is the Optimus Maximus and other OLED models, but we need more, much more. Thankfully, Korean peripheral manufacturer Luxeed’s color-changing desktop keyboard from a few years back is getting an update in ‘09.

The new version, seen in the upper right corner, is the Luxeed U5. Not nearly as flashy as the previous model, which came off as a total sci-fi immersion experience straight out of the firing room of the Deathstar, or perhaps the equally phantasmagorical experience of a dance floor of a “Saturday Night Fever” era discotheque, but the new model still manages to liven things up. It features colorful, programmable and patterned LED buttons, and maybe most importantly is compatible with Macs, as well as Linux and Windows based PCs. Pretty nice. My only qualm is that I can’t order a laptop with this configuration. Now if Luxeed could bust into that market, look out!

Unfortunately Luxeed’s translated Korean site is pretty limited and limp, but Technabob.com reports that the the U5 is available for pre-order in Korea now for the equivalent of $77. It should eventually be available in all markets, but there is no news on that as of yet.

–Tom Milnes