9to5Mac reports that Wired magazine showed off the tablet version of their magazine at SXSW , and dropped hints of an iPhone version soon to come. It’s a whole lot more than a screen version of a print product! Wired simply ported over their entire March issue into tablet form. Swiping horizontally acts a bit like a table of contents, taking you through the ads and the first pages of sections and stories. Scrolling vertically lets you scan through the whole content of longer stories. The app is very sensitive to orientation, with different images being displayed for an article based on whether the device was tilted in portrait or landscape mode. See about 3:30 into the video below for an example. A tap brings up a scrubber that lets you scroll through the magazine, seeing thumbnails–perfect for those who tend to riffle through publications. Some articles included tap links, bringing up additional information at a touch

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Wired Demonstrates its iPad Version of the Magazine

It was bound to happen, sooner or later. Steve Jobs is simply too important, too impressive, too easy a target not to base a character on him and turn it into a sitcom. And that’s what might very well be happening, if the pilot currently in development in Hollywood gets optioned for a series. Yesterday, Media Rights Capital released a statement on its website describing how, working with cable channel EPIX, they have green-lit a pilot episode for a proposed sitcom series entitled — what else? –  iCON . From MRC’s website: EPIX and Media Rights Capital have made a team for iCON, a comedy series pilot that will be developed by Larry Charles, the Emmy-winning TV writer/producer, and the director of the Sacha Baron Cohen features Borat and Bruno. Charles will oversee development of the script and will direct the half-hour pilot of a series written by Dan Lyons. A technology consultant for Newsweek, Lyons created the Fake Steve Jobs blog and wrote the novel Options: The Secret Life of Steve Jobs—A Parody. Yes, you read that right. Fake Steve himself is penning the script (it’s most likely he already has , given how sporadic the updates have been in recent weeks on the Fake Steve Jobs blog .) If you’re a fan of Fake Steve, this is exhilarating news; Lyons is not only an insightful author but is in possession of a Sahara-dry wit, to boot. In addition to his Fake Steve sideshow, Lyons is the author of Options: The Secret Life of Steve Jobs – A Parody . You might say he really knows the subject matter. And then there’s Larry Charles.

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New Sitcom Pilot to be Based Not-So-Loosely on Steve Jobs

An Australian tech website has started running ads featuring Mac Pros and MacBook Pros whose entry-level prices are noticeably higher than those in the current Mac lineup. So what, right? The ads are probably incorrectly labeled, or something. But the word on the street (well, the word on Engadget , anyway) is that these might predict the much-anticipated Mac refreshes that we’ve been waiting for. From Engadget: Apple’s Australian online store lists the most affordable versions of the MacBook Pro, MacBook Air and Mac Pro at A$1599, A$1999 and A$3599, respectively, but the ads show significantly higher “starting at” prices of A$1899, A$2399, and A$4499. Following the ads to Apple’s Australian online store reveals the same Mac models at the same old prices, so either these ads are terribly wrong or they’re been released a little early… It has been over a year since Apple released a major update to its high-end Mac Pro computer. I know very well because I bought one last April at an astronomically high price, and as such, guard it with my life. (No one else is allowed near it. No one!) If history has taught me anything, it is that I am not allowed to have the best and brightest kit for long. Therefore, an update is imminent. As for the MacBook Pro, we can probably expect to see Apple upgrade it with Intel’s powerful i7 Chipset

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Australian Website Hints at New Macs, Higher Prices

(Image courtesy of Engadget) From today’s “Take this with a grain of salt” files: An Australian tech journal has some new Apple ads up which appear to show the usual Mac Pros, MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs — but with higher than usual pricing. So what’s going on? According to Engadget , the confusion stems from Apple ads on Australian tech publication PC Authority which display “some rather peculiar price tags for its flagship mobile and desktop computers.” Clicking the online ad takes the viewer to the usual Australian Apple website — but with lower prices. Specifically, Apple Australia’s online store lists the MacBook Pro starting at A$1,599, the MacBook Air at A$1,999 and the Mac Pro at A$3,599, while the “official-looking” ad incorrectly lists the prices as A$1,899, A$2,399 and A$4,499 respectively. The question is, has Apple lost its mind? Is this an unfortunate sign of things to come, or just a slip? There’s no real way to know at this point, although rumors have been swirling that Apple’s laptops will gain Intel Core i7 processors soon, while the Mac Pro has been rumored to gain the Core i7-980X. But it would be out of character for Apple to raise the prices so much for new models, especially at a time when they have so much money in the bank and they’ve been slowly creeping prices downward to continue the good fight against Windows. We figure we’ll find out soon enough…

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Australian Ads Foretell Higher Mac Pricing?

Gizmodo reports that Stephen Vale has filed suit against Apple on five break-of-warranty counts and one claim of unfair competition. Why? He perspired so heavily that the headphone inline controller shorted out. According to the filing, Vale perspired heavily during a workout session and the moisture ran down the cord into the inline controller. He took it to his local Apple Store, and they gave him a replacement cord–presumably without handling the original unit. Apparently the new cord didn’t work, which got Vale worked up into a…well, you know. Vale’s point is that Apple advertises the Shuffle as being perfect for "working out," "running" and "on the road"–which he says is false. The filing also states that when he went to the Apple Store, "Plaintiff was told it was alright to exercise with the music player, but not to sweat." The class action suit is filed in the state of California, and seeks unspecified damages for Vale and other sweaty Californians who join the class.

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Apple Sweats Out iPod Shuffle Lawsuit

Section: iPhone / iPod touch / iPad , iPhone , iPod touch , iDevice Apps , Mac Software Macintosh and iPhone/iPod/iPad product updates and announcements for March 16, 2010: Macintosh iPod Macintosh Selznick Scientific Software, LLC has announced PasswordWallet 4.5 , a major update to their best-selling password management solution for Macintosh and iPhone. The app now allows the user to automatically share all of their passwords between their Mac, iPhone and MobileMe accounts, as well as their Windows, Android, Windows Mobile and Palm Pre devices. Simple and secure, PasswordWallet encrypts and stores passwords and other private information in one, convenient location. Yazsoft has announced Playback 1.5.1 , an important update to their popular zero configuration media server for Mac OS X. Playback allows anyone to share their media with any Playstation 3, Xbox 360, or other supported UPnP compatible device. Playback can also share media stored in folders or even make entire disks available to a Playstation 3 or Xbox 360. By default, Playback will share almost any content on the users system.

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Mac, iPhone, iPod and iPad product news – March 16, 2010

CNN Money and Fortune Brainstorm Tech reported that a new analysis from Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster continued to advise clients to invest in Apple. He pointed to Mac and iPod sales as reasons for optimism. Wall Street estimated a 22% increase in Mac unit sales for the first quarter of 2010, but January and February numbers show a 39% increase over 2009. The iPod models have turned a corner in sales as well. After sales drops for 16 months in a row, January and February revenue was up 7%. Munster points out that the increases are skewed somewhat by the fact that the beginning of 2009 was the midst of the recession, so sales were down. In addition, the average selling price of both Macs and iPods is down, meaning people are looking for lower priced models. DailyTech considers the Mac numbers surprising because of the age of Apple’s lineup

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Mac Sales Go Up 39% in 2010

CNN Money and Fortune Brainstorm Tech reported that a new analysis from Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster continued to advise clients to invest in Apple. He pointed to Mac and iPod sales as reasons for optimism. Wall Street estimated a 22% increase in Mac unit sales for the first quarter of 2010, but January and February numbers show a 39% increase over 2009. The iPod models have turned a corner in sales as well. After sales drops for 16 months in a row, January and February revenue was up 7%. Munster points out that the increases are skewed somewhat by the fact that the beginning of 2009 was the midst of the recession, so sales were down. In addition, the average selling price of both Macs and iPods is down, meaning people are looking for lower priced models. DailyTech considers the Mac numbers surprising because of the age of Apple’s lineup. "Apple’s computer lineup, with the exception of the new i7 iMacs, is rather dated.  The problem is particularly severe in the MacBook Pro series, whose hardware currently trails even drastically cheaper models from competitors like ASUSTek." There’s room for even more optimism considering the future. The iPad launch in April should be a huge shot of revenue, and an iPhone update is expected this summer.

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Mac Sales Go Up 39% in 2010

Section: iPhone / iPod touch / iPad , iPhone , iPod touch , iDevice Apps , Mac Software Macintosh and iPhone/iPod/iPad product updates and announcements for March 15, 2010: Macintosh iPod Macintosh PagePlanet Software, Inc. has announced the Golden Master release of Modular Gateway Interface (MGI) 3.2 for the Macintosh OS X and Linux operating systems. MGI is an Apache 2 module that adds full functionality to every website on your server using a simple tag structure. MGI includes 67 tags to enhance a website with everything from simple counters and form processing to custom databases and shopping carts. You can also combine MGI’s powerful programming tags to make your website do anything you can imagine.  Need to build a custom login and tracking system? No problem. TheMacBundles today released its March bundle and a new and innovative Build Your Own Bundle store. TheMacBundles has set a new standard of quality and value with its high quality, low priced bundles. These no-gimmick bundles provide users with the same software, support, licenses, and upgrade benefits that apply to users who paid the full price for the titles. The new BYOB store maintains these high standards and lets users create their own customized bundles with some simple mouse clicks. iWebTemplate has announced the addition of a free iWeb themes and templates section to be used with Apple’s iWeb Website building application. iWeb Free Themes includes seven great themes: Sky, Picture, Church, Joy, Love, Billiard and Cat. Each iWeb Free theme can be used as the basis for a great new website.

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Mac, iPhone, iPod and iPad product news – March 15, 2010

When Apple started offering pre-orders on the iPad, it also gave away more details about the iWork applications (Pages, Numbers, and Keynote) for the mobile tablet device. Pages Pages will give you the ability to email documents as Pages, Word, or PDF attachments. You will also have the ability to import and edit Pages or Word documents into the application from an email. While you’re editing a document, you can rotate the iPad for a distraction-free writing experience. You can also wirelessly connect an Apple Keyboard via Wi-Fi, or use the keyboard dock to type  out longer documents. Additionally, there are 16 document templates included in Pages for iPad. Keynote Keynote gives you the ability to view and edit Keynote or PowerPoint files on the iPad. The application includes 12 pre-designed themes. You can import photos and videos from your photo library to insert into your presentations, as well as choose and set slide animations and transitions. You can also use the optional display adapter to connect to a projector where slides can be presented. Numbers Numbers includes 16 templates for home, work, and school related spreadsheets. A full-screen mode enables you to view your documents horizontally. You can also use forms to gather data without entering information directly into a spreadsheet. Just like Pages and Keynote, you can send and import Numbers and Excel files right from your email

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Apple Details iWork Features on the iPad