Not that this came as a surprise to anyone in the Apple wing of the gadgetosphere, but today Apple sent out official invitations confirming that its annual September digital audio product dog-and-pony show will take place on Wednesday, September 9 at 10am Pacific Time. But the invitation might dash some hopes of a Beatles/Steve Jobs love fest as the tagline reads, “It’s only rock and roll, but we like it”–which references a Rolling Stones song, not a Beatles tune. Many in the gadgetosphere had been speculating (once again) that Apple could be rolling out digital versions of The Beatles catalog, and they had a pretty strong case since September 9 is also the day that the group re-releases its catalog as well as debuts its Rock Band video game.

Ars Technica writes that we can expect the entire iPod line to get refreshed, with all models–including the iPod classic–most likely getting integrated cameras. As usual, we’ll cover all the last minute rumors in our weekly column on Friday, and we’ll also be following the announcement on Wednesday, September 9, so be sure to check back to End User on that day.

And since this is a rather slim news announcement, here’s some more Snow Leopard coverage and other bits that I wasn’t able to fit into last Friday’s Bites:

• If you’re wondering if some of OS X 10.5’s applications and utilities have disappeared with OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard–such as the AppleScript folder, Expose and others–Rob Griffiths at Macworld helps us find where they’ve been relocated.
• MacNN/Electronista have an extensive review of Snow Leopard, which includes details on the underlying framework of the OS (including Grand Central Dispatch and 64-bit computing), Microsoft Exchange support, and comparisons to the upcoming release of Windows 7.
• If you want to get into the technical nitty gritty of Grand Central Dispatch (which optimizes how Snow Leopard allocates tasks across multi-core processors), check out this Gizmodo post (which is not for the technologically weak-kneed).
• Jonathan Seff at Macworld introduces QuickTime X, the latest version of the video software included with Snow Leopard, which changes the viewer UI to a translucent black and a floating controller, editing options (previously available if you bought the Pro version of QuickTime), and easier exporting options.
• Some wishlist items for the next version of iTunes to be rolled out on September 9 (which, coincidentally, is also very Beatles-friendly at version number 9, number 9, number 9…) from Scott McNulty at Macworld, including my biggest pet peeve–the mandatory inclusion of standard-definition downloads for purchased HD TV episodes. I don’t need them, and I’d love to be able to opt out of it.
• Hallelujah! Snow Leopard now allows you to focus your searches to a current selected folder by default (via TUAW).
• There’s been some discussion about Snow Leopard’s new malware-blocking feature, but Lifehacker reports that it’s very limited in scope–looking for just two trojans and scanning in just a few applications.
• 9to5Mac has discovered that the soft keyboard in the new Snow Leopard is more prominantly located in the Keyboard preferences (instead of its location buried in International preferences in Leopard), and can now be stretched and resized. Gee, sounds like it would be great for use on a tablet computer…
• And finally… for a review of the iPod’s history, check out this summary timeline at Pocket-lint.

  

–Agen G.N. Schmitz

With both Windows 7 and Mac OS X Snow Leopard
set to be released in the coming weeks, more people than usual may be
contemplating the eternal question of whether to go with Mac OS X
or Windows for their next computer. Renton-based virtualization company
Parallels Inc. is betting that some people would rather have both on the same machine.

Parallels, which competes with VMware, today introduced
a new “Switch to Mac” product based on its program for running Windows
on Apple computers. The $99.99 package includes that Parallels Desktop
for Mac 4.0 virtualization program, two hours of Mac video tutorials
for erstwhile Windows users, plus a high-speed transfer cable and
“transporter” software for moving files and data from a Windows PC to a
Mac. The package is $20 more than buying Parallels Desktop for Mac 4.0
alone, at the suggested retail price. (Amazon.com currently offers a lower price for the standalone version.)

Mary Starman, director of consumer marketing for Parallels and a
former member of Microsoft’s Mac Business Unit, said she knows how
disorienting the Windows-to-Mac switch can be, having made the
transition herself during her time at the Redmond company. She said the
timing of the “Switch to Mac” product release, was not related
specifically to the upcoming launch of Windows 7 and Snow Leopard, but
was more related to market trends.



“We’re definitely seeing that there is a new customer segment out
there that you would call a ’switcher’ — someone who has traditionally
been Windows-focused, but who has decided that they want to make the
move to Mac,” Starman said. 



It’s not all about Mac hardware at the company. Parallels is also developing a program to let people run Windows XP on their Windows 7 machines, as an alternative to the “Windows XP mode” virtualization technology that Microsoft is expected to offer.

Read more of Todd Bishop’s posts at TechFlash.com, and follow him on Twitter @toddbishop

It seems the rumors of an early appearance of the new Apple cat on the block were right on the mark, with Apple announcing this morning that Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard would be officially shipping on August 28–beating Apple’s original estimate of a release in the month of September. It comes as a single user license for a nicely affordable $29 as well as a family pack with five licences for $49. Additionally, you can get Snow Leopard bundled together with the latest editions of iLife (with iPhoto ’09, iMovie ’09, GarageBand ’09, iWeb ’09, and iDVD) and iWork (Pages ’09, Numbers ’09, and Keynote ’09) in single and family pack versions.

And, if you’ve purchased new Mac hardware (such as the new 15-inch and 13-inch MacBook Pros) since June 8 of this year, you can get Snow Leopard for just $10 (plus shipping and handling) via Apple’s Up-to-Date upgrade program. The trick is you’ve got to make the Snow Leopard Up-to-Date order within 90 days of the hardware purchase (or by December 26, 2009–whichever comes first).

–Agen G.N. Schmitz

It’s looking likely that the big Apple iPod/iTunes-related event is to happen on September 9, which is in line with previous years’ rollouts of new iPods. But September 9 is an interesting choice for an Apple event this year as it also coincides with a product rollout that could easily eclipse anything even remotely insanely great that Apple could pull out of the hat. September 9 is the day that The Beatles release its Rock Band video game as well as remastered CDs of its catalog (check out the Amazon Beatles store for all the goodies; also, if you’ve not been hit with the hype yet, check out this story from last weekend’s NYTimes Magazine about how the Beatles are entering the 21st century via a video game).

And thus begins the resurgence of hopeful rumors that the Apple event will also tie in with the Beatles event and finally bring digital distribution of the band’s catalog to the iTunes store. This Beatles-to-iTunes rumors has been one of the longest running bits of wishful thinking in the Apple wing of the gadgetosphere–I can even date it back to an early post I did for this blog (when it was named Current and before I formalized the weekly news roundup into Bites) back on November 27, 2006. (Additionally, that post also includes the other white whale of Apple watchers–the Mac tablet PC.)

Some of the more sure-footed rumors surrounding the Apple event include new iPod touch and iPod nano models with cameras, a new version of iTunes that looks to include integration with Facebook, and the new code-named Cocktail digital album format that will include lyrics, videos and more. Another item that’s almost a sure thing is non-appearance of the iTablet/iTouch tablet-ized Mac, as it’s expected to be announced/released in 2010.

• Speaking of the iPod, Joachim Bean at TUAW found that Apple’s online store was selling the first-generation, click-wheel, 5 GB iPod from 2001 (I still have mine in mothballs somewhere). Bean ordered the model, but was disappointed to learn that Apple wasn’t going to fulfill that order (not unexpected, as this was probably just an online glitch). Instead, it was sending him a 2nd generation 10 GB model (wholly unexpected–who knew that Apple still had these around???).
• And should The Beatles finally get released in iTunes (or once you digitize the new remastered CDs for your iPod/iPhone), you can recapture some of the glory of ye olde LP with the Vinyl DJ iPhone app (link opens iTunes), which can add crackle, scratch and hum noises to your tunes.
• Pocket-lint pulls together over 50 concept designs for the long-gestating iTablet that have been done over the years. Add a new one to the list (currently my favorite mock-up) from Mario Amaya based on the musings of Rainer Brockerhoff.

  

• Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster believes that Apple will release a new Apple TV in the next several months with TV-input and DVR capabilities and an actual Apple HDTV within the next two years (via The Apple Blog). And CNet’s Crave blog salivates over the potential for using one of Apple’s currently shipping products in conjunction with such an iHDTV:
  

  Even with a built-in Apple TV box and a big, shiny Apple logo, the iHDTV would barely rate a “ho-hum” from jaded tech reviewers like myself. Nope, the real coolness and opportunity for innovation would be the seamless integration of a high-powered, Web-enabled touch-screen remote control–especially one 48 million people already own. Like, say, an iPhone.

• If you’re ready to break your Apple TV out of its monogamous relationship with iTunes, The Apple Blog posts a rather simple procedure for XBMC (aka, XBox Media Center) and Boxee to reach maximum streaming video potential.

  

• TomTom’s GPS navigation iPhone app was officially released this week (via Consumer Reports), with versions for the U.S. and Canada, Western Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.

• Some other iPhone apps on the horizon via The Apple Core–Facebook 3.0 with a new interface (but no push notifications till v3.1) and an official Wikipedia app (though the free Wiki Tap does just fine for me).
• Back on August 15, 1998, the original iMac with the rounded translucent case (and a 4 GB hard drive) started shipping (via Apple Matters)

• And finally… a DIY project for this weekend via Lifehacker–making a dock for my iPhone 3GS from its box contents (rather than spending $49 for Apple’s universal dock)

–Agen G.N. Schmitz

After fulfilling my civic duty with a several-week stint on jury duty and being away from the daily check-ins on Apple news, I started back in on my daily Apple news review this week and found that we’re still no closer to the release of the magical iTouch/iTablet. Despite some promising rumors pointing to the possibility of the long-rumored portable tablet device getting announced in conjunction with Apple’s annual September roll-out of new iPod models, Apple writers/bloggers John Gruber and Jim Dalrymple (both well sourced in the rumor department) are certain that it won’t be at the September event and that we won’t be seeing the iTablet until 2010 at the earliest. And that sounds about right to me, based on the fact that Apple likes to focus on one theme per event and, as Wired’s Gadget Lab notes, an early 2010 announcement event timed around the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) would be an attention grabber.

So, what will the September digital music event bring (currently rumored for the week of September 7)? We should see new iPod nano and iPod touch models with integrated cameras (another case manufacturer has leaked next-generation case models that seems to confirm the camera presence, seen at right), and possibly see a price reduction in the iPod touch to match the upcoming Microsoft Zune HD. Additionally, we’ll probably be introduced to Apple’s new interactive album scheme that’s been codenamed Cocktail, which “will feature interactive material, including photos, lyric sheets, liner notes and clips from music videos” (and which will now compete with a new digital album format called CMX that will be offered by the big four music labels… get ready for another music format battle). The next version of iTunes (v.9) will also get released, and there’s expectation that it will add Blu-ray Disc support (and possibly connectivity to social networking sites).

• There’s been a bit of chatter this week that the release of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard has been moved up from its original September launch timeframe to the end of August, with MacNN reporting some books about Snow Leopard (such as the Mac OS X Snow Leopard Bible) getting their release dates adjusted accordingly. Speaking of Snow Leopard books, 9to5Mac lists its top 5 guides to Snow Leopard, which includes the aforementioned Bible as well as titles by David Pogue and Robin Williams. (For those who might find Pogue’s 1000-page tome a bit much, might I suggest my colleague Jeff Carlson’s Snow Leopard Pocket Guide, which clocks in at just a quarter of Pogue’s page count and is meant to get you moving quickly through the new OS.)
• The mobile video sharing service Qik released its official iPhone app (it had been available for jailbroken iPhones), which allows you to directly upload videos to Facebook, Twitter as well as the Qik web site. However, it’s not as full-featured as some had hoped: it’s relegated to use only over Wi-Fi, it works only with iPhone 3GS models, and it doesn’t do live streaming video–only uploads (via Ars Technica and Lifehacker).
• According to an industry study, iPhone 3GS users are far more satisfied with their purchase (at 99%) than Palm Pre owners (87%).
• I don’t commute very far, but during my jury duty when took the bus to downtown Seattle and used my iPhone 3GS for primary communication during the day, I began to understand the many complaints about battery life–I’d be nearly out of juice by the time I returned home each day (and that was without push notifications turned on or heavy multimedia playback). If I were doing more day-to-day traveling with my iPhone, I’d seriously consider the Mophie Juice Pack battery extender, which gets a positive review over at The Apple Core blog.
• The next version of Microsoft’s Mac Office is slated to be released in late 2010, and it will replace the Entourage email program with Outlook, which will offer improved connection to Microsoft Exchange for corporate users as well as provide a slimmed down email database that should work better with both Spotlight search and Time Machine backups.
• According to AppleInsider, Netflix might offer its Watch Instantly streaming video service to iPhone/iPod touch users (as well as to the Nintendo Wii).
• If you’ve got an iMac or Apple Cinema Display, check out the BackPack shelf that attaches to the back of the pedestal–perfect for an external hard drive or even a Mac mini (via SwissMiss)
• The Apple Blog offers some handy suggestions on additional System Preferences that can make your Mac life a happier one–including the one-two video punch of Perian and Flip4Mac, which brings Windows Media Video and host of other codecs to your viewing pleasure.
• And finally… a use for the craptastic headphones that come with iPods and iPhones from my new favorite time-wasting site, There, I Fixed It:

  

–Agen G.N. Schmitz