Last week we noted the resurfacing of the long-gestating rumor of the Apple tablet-ized touchscreen-enabled Mac (dubbed by many as the iTablet or iTouch) via a news report from The China Times that said the device could be announced in the fall of this year. Well, the march from rumor to reality is advanced again this week as AppleInsider posted an exclusive story that seems to definitively place the iTablet–or, as AppleInsider refers to it, the “reincarnation of its beloved-but-defunct Newton MessagePad”–in Apple’s product release roadmap for 2010:

(T)he past six months have reportedly seen the critical pieces fall into place. Jobs, who’s been overseeing the project from his home, office and hospital beds, has finally achieved that much-sought aura of satisfaction. He’s since cemented the device in the company’s 2010 roadmap, where it’s being positioned for a first quarter launch, according to people well-respected by AppleInsider for their striking accuracy in Apple’s internal affairs.

That means that the device, which is expected to retail for somewhere between the cost of a high-end iPhone and Apple’s most affordable Mac notebook, is bound to turn up any time between January and March…

Naturally, this pronouncement has produced many a ripple through the gadgetosphere, including Gizmodo believing that the new iTablet will take over the MacBook moniker (as the 13-inch unibody MacBook just recently went Pro), the Mac Observer pondering whether the iTablet is really Apple’s next stab at the Apple TV, and Jason Schwarz Seeking Alpha going so far as to declare the “iTouch Tablet is about to change society as we know it” based on its ability to take full advantage of affordable, download-on-the-fly mobile apps among others.

I don’t know about wholesale societal change, but I can certainly see that light, nimble, wirelessly connected (Wi-Fi and cellularly) touchscreen PCs are the next step in personal computing. All I have to do is look at my own toddler and some of his compatriots who constantly clamor for the iPhones that their parents sport. At just 2-1/2, they’ve already mastered the basics of the touch user interface, and they get frustrated when other devices with LCD screens don’t offer the same easy touch controls. Apple has a long view of where computing is going and it looks like they’re ready to make a bold technological statement. The question remains, though, whether the public is truly ready for this device and willing to fork over the dough so that the iTablet doesn’t suffer the same fate as the Newton. But for now, onto the Apple-y goodness from the week that was…

• In other rumor mongering, it’s looking more and more likely that the new iPods that get announced at Apple’s traditional September iPod redux rollout will be getting cameras based on leaks of cases for the new iPod nano and iPod touch. Interestingly, there doesn’t seem to be any camera-enhanced iPod classic coming down the pike, and CNet’s Fully Equipped blog surmises that the iPod classic is being put out to pasture.
• Apple reported strong financials for its third quarter (which ended June 27), with an acceleration of MacBook sales, a 134 percent year-over-year increase in iPod touch sales, and a profit of $1.23 billion. The new MacBook lineup–with lower priced entry-level model and improved battery life in the Pros–seems to be quite popular, as HardMac reports that MacBook sales in June were up 25% in year-over-year comparisons.
• Navigon announced the availability of its turn-by-turn navigation iPhone app for North America (as well as for Europe) this week, and iLounge has a detailed review of it (giving it a disappointing C grade). Other recently released GPS navigation apps include the one-time-fee-based XRoad G-Map apps (introduced at Consumer Reports) and AT&T’s subscription-based AT&T Navigator app (video review at Insanely Great Mac). And the 9to5Mac blog reminds us that TomTom’s iPhone software should be released by the end of summer.
• Sascha Segan wonders whatever happened to the Apple TV over at PCMag.com. As an owner/user of an Apple TV, I wonder, too.
• Remember Apple’s first iTunes-enabled mobile phone? It wasn’t the iPhone, but the Motorola ROKR, which debuted five years ago this weekend (via 9to5Mac).
• Professional videographers can rejoice now that Final Cut 7 got released this week–now with the ability (for the first time) to burn a Blu-ray disc.
• And Palm Pre owners can rejoice as Palm has re-enabled iTunes compatibility with the release of the WebOS software update 1.1… at least until Apple issues a new updated to iTunes that kills it.
• A couple of Apple-related items of note from Etsy, an online storefront for hand-crafted goods: a wall clock made from the side panel of a Power Mac G3 (via Macworld) and a felt iPhone case (via Cult of Mac) in the guise of a happy Mac Classic computer.
• I’ve recently ditched my old Timex clock radio and replaced it with the Touch Flip Clock app running on my iPhone (which is plugged into an Apple dock). Thanks to my early rising toddler, I don’t need an alarm clock, but if I did I’d check out some of the more robust alarm clock apps (as Touch Flip Clock is a bit limited) enumerated over at Wired’s Gadget Lab.
• Nicole Martinelli at Cult of Mac suggests five Apple Store locations diehard Apple fans should visit before they die. I’m looking forward to the possibility of visiting the two currently under-construction Paris locations (via HardMac)–including one at Le Louvre–next spring as my wife and I gear up for a long-overdue trip back to the City of Lights.
• I’m a bit of a public radio junkie, and so I was thrilled to see that the Public Radio Player app got updated to 2.0 with the ability to listen to on-demand shows as well as live streams of public radio stations from across the country (NPR as well as smaller local public stations, such as the excellent KBCS from Bellevue Community College here in Washington). Many of the NPR on-demand shows are already available as podcasts, but the Public Radio Player provides instant gratification via streaming (instead of having to wait to download podcasts and then subsequently sync your iPhone or iPod touch).
• And finally… The Daily Show covers the battle of two iPhone fart applications (with potential civil rights implications???):

  The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon – Thurs 11p / 10ciFeudwww.thedailyshow.comDaily Show Full EpisodesPolitical HumorJoke of the Day

–Agen G.N. Schmitz

OS X has many virtues, but one thing it’s always lacked is a comprehensive approach to theming–you either love Aqua or you don’t, but historically there wasn’t much you could do about it other than change the orientation and size of your docks, or the layout in the Finder view.

But Magnifique changes all that.  A completely free download for Mac OS X, Magnifique is a theming engine that lets you change the look and feel of OS X.  After installing the program, you can use its menu-based interface to select from a list of indexed themes.  You can browse details and preview each theme before installing, and install changes take place in real time (although sometimes you have to restart any open programs before the theme fully “takes”).

The Magnifique format is open-source, so you can create your own themes as well–although the Magnifique interface has a database of themes that are stored on its own servers, you can make your own themes and pack them into .mfq files that anyone can download and use.

The current version of Magnifique is 2.1 and supports the theming of the Finder, the Dock, and iTunes.  Check out the Magnifique site, and download the program for your Mac here.

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the first moon walk, Google has added a new feature to its Google Earth software called The Moon in Google, which lets you see topographical information of the areas visited by the various Apollo landings as well as 3D renderings of items left behind by the moon missions (hat tip to CNet’s WebWare blog). Here’s Google’s introductory video (and if you don’t have Google Earth version 5, you can get the free download here)

For iPhone and iPod touch users, Carina Software is offering both its SkyVoyager and SkyGazer software iPhone apps (regularly $14.99 and $2.99 respectively) as a free download for just today (Monday, 20 July) to celebrate the anniversary. Both apps display every star the eye can see from earth as well as provides descriptions of constellations and the ability to show you the sky from any place on earth at any time within 100 years (past and future). And as the price would suggest, Sky Voyager is the more robust of the apps with a much larger database (with over 300,000 stars).

–Agen G.N. Schmitz

Quarterly results for Apple are due to be released on Tuesday (July 21), and while they’re expected to be good, they sadly won’t take into account my personal Apple stimulus program that I initiated last week with the purchase of two of the new crop of iPhones (one for me, one for my wife) and the top-of-the-line MacBook Pro (heck, even my mother-in-law chipped in with a new 13-inch MBP). And I’m loving the new features that both of them brought. While i’s great to have video recording and the cut-and-past feature rocks, the best thing about the iPhone 3GS truly is its faster processor. I’ve been using OmniFocus (link opens in iTunes) as my task management application since last summer, but it opened and synced so slowly on my EDGEy/OG iPhone that I had pretty much given up on using the iPhone app and just used the desktop software. But with the combined speed increase in both processor (which makes opening the app nearly instantaneous, where before it took several seconds) and cellular connectivity, I’m finding myself returning OmniFocus on the iPhone and feeling better about spending the dough for both desktop and iPhone apps (which totaled about $100).

I’m loving how solid the unibody MacBook Pro feels, and both how silent it runs and how quickly it responds from sleep. My first impression of the glossy screen was a big wow–the colors and brightness were so much better than my 2007 model MacBook Pro. However, I’m starting to understand some of the complaints about the glossiness of it–with the main problem being reflection. My wife and I watched a movie on the MacBook Pro and I had trouble not concentrating on her mirrored image on the screen, plus my limited use of the MBP in directly sunny conditions have been challenging. AppleInsider reported this week that Apple has heard enough complaints that it’s considering offering matte display options (currently now only found with its 17-inch model) to the 13- and 15-inch MacBook Pros.

• The image above comes from Balmuda Design, which offers the NumberKey iPhone app that turns your iPhone/iPod touch into a 10-key pad (connecting to your Mac or Windows PC using Wi-Fi).
• The big rumor of the week is yet another re-hash of the long-gestating iTablet rumor… but this time it’s being reported by a reportedly reputable journalistic source–the China Times (translation link via The Apple Core). According to the report (via Gizmodo and Ars Technica among others), Apple will release its take on the netbook in October for $800.
• My colleague Jeff Carlson writes in the Seattle Times about his experiences using DropBox to network remote computers and synchronize files between several different Macs, and then using Growl to receive notifications that files have been synced. And Macworld’s iPhone Central reports that an iPhone version of DropBox is being readied for release, which will enable you to sync files between your iPhone and Mac.
• 9to5Mac reports that the Fring iPhone app has been updated with push notifications for both incoming VoIP calls and instant messages (IMs)–which can transform an iPod touch into a much more workable phone alternative. Before this update, The Apple Blog also did a survey of 10 other IM apps with a handy comparison chart, and crowning the free, multi-network-receiving IM+ Lite as the champ. The IM+ with Push app adds, as the name suggests, push notification and is currently on sale for $4.99 in the App Store.
• As Tom noted earlier this week, the latest version of iTunes has killed the Palm Pre’s syncing capability with Apple’s music management software. TUAW offers Pre owners some alternative ways to keep the music syncing–including The Missing Sync and Salling Media Sync.
• Arggggh… when will EA (Electronic Arts) release its FIFA series soccer game to the Mac? TUAW reports that FIFA 10 will be coming out in October on a slew of platforms save for OS X for the Mac and iPhone. Rather than focus on the big guns in its arsenal, it seems that EA is going small by creating a micro-studio devoted to low-cost iPhone gaming called 8lb Gorilla, and it’s come out with its first release called Zombies and Me (link opens in iTunes)–which MobileCrunch finds underwhelming even for $0.99.
• Over at the iTunes Store, you can party like it’s 1985 with its hot new sales concept–digital 45s (as noted in Macworld). Now as an oldster who still owns all of his 7-inch singles (including my highly prized Japanese/Spanish version of The Police’s”De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da”), I kinda like this concept. In the old days, many bands would often pair a hit song with an unreleased B-side, and the iTunes Store pulls together some interesting chestnuts by Prince, Van Halen and Michael Jackson from the mid-1980s. It’ll be interesting to see if this concept has legs with contemporary artists.
• And finally… speaking of the decade when video began to slowly but surely kill the radio star, Gizmodo has posted a re-imagining of what today’s Apple web site would look like with products from 1983:

  

  And from the Apple Matters history section, a reminder of the birth of Aldus Pagemaker (which has since morphed into Adobe’s InDesign) back on July 15, 1985.

–Agen G.N. Schmitz

Statistics can always be manipulated to highlight whatever an individual party is selling, but when it comes to the PC sales market, which overall has been hard hit by the economic downturn, the second quarter of 2009 ended up as not quite as bad as predicted, which has got to seen as a good thing. Don’t get me wrong, the industry is still very much in a slump. It’s just that according to estimates by IDC Worldwide, instead of being down a forecasted 6.3% worldwide at the end of Q2, it was only down 3.1%. Huzzah!

Beyond this factoid, a few other things can be gleamed from the numbers. Looking just at the domestic market we can see that as compared to last year, the players are the same, only that Apple was overtaken by Acer and Toshiba, dropping from number three to number five overall, losing about one percentage point in marketshare. The caveat here is that these numbers are debated by industry watchers. Another point is that Dell’s woes continue, as they dropped nearly six percent marketshare, now barely holding off HP for the top spot. So, where did all those percentage points go? Into XP stuffed Netbooks, and thus into the coffers of Acer and Toshiba. If this trend continues you have to wonder what the numbers for the rest of the fiscal year will look like, especially with Windows 7 on the horizon. We shall see.

   

–Tom Milnes