Bites from the Apple, Bonus Round: But I Like It, Like It, Yes I Do

October 17, 2009 · Posted in Apple

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.