If ever you needed a sign that Apple was a different kind of technology company, this is it. What other computer manufacturer would remove its top-selling, hype-inducing, industry-altering new product from the prime spot on its website home page, and replace it with an obituary to an investor? This is one of those “Here’s to the

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Apple Devotes Entire Home Page To Jerome York Obituary

Man, Apple’s been coming down pretty hard on third party vendors lately. First it was the sexy apps, then the WiFi sniffers, then the book-only apps. In the latest round of purging, Apple takes it to the physical world. Whether it’s just because they want more store space for their own products or they’re cooking up their own screen films or they really think their oleophobic glass screens are all that tough, Apple has told screen protector vendors that they’re quits as far as the Apple Store and the website goes. Whaaat? Rumors are abounding that Apple has contacted vendors and told them they won’t be stocking anymore screen protectors. 9To5Mac links to Dan Frakes at Macworld who says he’s heard from multiple vendor sources about the heave-ho. And it’s not even confined to straight up screen protection. Even sleeve protector products that contain cling films are being asked to step outside. Image Source: iphone-products.com Personally, we don’t know anyone who doesn’t have a screen protector for their iPhone. In fact, we bought one the day we got our iPhone and put it on the moment it was registered, and the handy little cling film has never been off since. While we go out of our way not to put keys or any other hard metal objects in the same pocket with our iPhones (and many women we know have a dedicated pocket for it in their purses), we’d still never go without our screen protector. Even worse, we’d never even think of picking up an iPad with its four times as large screen without some serious cling action to protect our baby from scratches. So far, as is typical with everyone’s favorite computer company, Cupertino’s being a bit tight lipped about the whole thing

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Apple Thinks Their Screens Are Plenty Tough

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

Section: iPhone / iPod touch / iPad , iPad Filed under “things Apple normally doesn’t do,” it appears as if our favorite Cupertino based company has changed the function of one of the hardware switches on the iPad before making it available to customers. Apparently, as shown by the outlined diagram of the device on their website, the switch that was once in place for muting the device will now serve as a way to lock the screen rotation. Considering there have been complaints about the inability to do this on the iPhone, it’ll certainly be a nice feature to have on the iPad. Via [ 9 to 5 Mac ] Full Story » | Written by Josh Holat for Appletell . | Comment on this Article »

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iPad mute switch switched to screen rotation lock switch

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

Apple has redesigned its iWork.com Website for the iPad and iPhone, allowing documents to be viewed on touchscreen devices. The company also unveiled new ways to share documents, allowing documents to become public. The updated interface now allows documents to be scrolled using a finger, an action that has become common for iPhone users and upcoming

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Apple Ads iPad Sharing for iWork.com

This week Apple tweaked up the iWork.com service a tad by including new sharing features and improvements to the UI, according to AppleInsider . Delving in, Apple stated that users can now create a public link which will allow them to share documents with large groups of people or on websites and social networks.  You’ll no longer need to set a password or send out an invite.  Anyone who is in possession of the public link will be able to view documents that are shared in such a manner, but cannot add comments or notes. Apple also went to say that users would now be able to download documents that get shared on iWork.com without ever having to leave from the Shared Documents page.  That same page also gives users the capability to track the number of times that their public documents are viewed. Lastly, Apple also redesigned the iWork.com’s Sign In and Shared Documents page for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch, in order to make it less of an effort for users to access their documents while they are on the go. "The new interface and improved scrolling help you find your shared documents faster," according to Apple.  "Visit www.iwork.com from your iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch to view your shared documents." However, in order to get the most out of this service, Apple is advising users to make sure they are using the latest and greatest version of iWork on their Mac.  And if you so enjoy the service, they are requesting that you leave them some comments on the new updates. iWork image courtesy of macsales.com  

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Apple Tweaks and Adds To iWork.com Beta Service

(Image courtesy of Lifehacker) Love your Magic Mouse but not so much when it comes to the hand and wrist pain resulting from its less-than-ergonomic use? For only 10 bucks, you can fall in love with your Magic Mouse all over again. Lifehacker has all the details on this cost-saving tip to make your Magic Mouse more ergonomic. The solution is a $10 block of silicon called Magic Mouse, Fixed . Designed by a Magic Mouse user named Will, who was “tired of sore hands after using the otherwise pleasant to use mouse.” As you can see from the the photo at the top of this post, Magic Mouse, Fixed is simply a ergonomic-friendly block of silicon that suction cups onto the back of your Magic Mouse, providing a “soft but solid” surface for your hand to rest on. We know, your hand is already thanking you just for thinking about it. If you don’t believe us, check out the video below to see it in action or hit the Magic Mouse, Fixed website to order yours. Hey, spending 10 extra bucks to make your Magic Mouse more hand-friendly sounds like a bargain to us.

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Ergonomic-ify Your Magic Mouse for Only 10 Bucks

Apple continues to release developer seeds of Mac OS X 10.6.3 for testing, but judging from those using it, the official release may be getting close. On Tuesday, Apple made Mac OS X 10.6.3 Build 10D571 available to developers, and MacRumors managed to get the details , courtesy of website iPhone in Canada . Cupertino has asked developers to “focus their testing on Graphics Drivers, iChat, Quicktime and Fonts.” Among the two biggest issued addressed with the new developer seed: – Issues addressed that caused background message colors to display incorrectly in Mail when scrolling – Issue resolved that caused machines using BTMM and the Bonjour Sleep Proxy to wake unexpectedly A known issue affecting Software Update has also been documented, and to test the problem, Apple is having last week’s Safari 4.0.5 update offered again in the new build. It’s been 11 days since the last developer build of Mac OS X 10.6.3 was seeded, and MacRumors is predicting “a final version to the public in the relatively near future.” While Apple’s update schedule can be a slippery fish to catch, as developer seeds get released at a faster pace, it’s a good sign that development is winding down on a particular release. Apple released the final Mac OS X 10.6.2 update in early November and began seeding 10.6.3 to developers in early January.

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Mac OS X 10.6.3 Gets One Step Closer to Reality

(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?