Over at Patently Apple , Jack Burcher Purcher reports that Apple is applying for a trademark called “Joint Venture.” The trademark application indicates that this will most likely be some kind of new service offering by Apple. Might Apple start providing on-site service just like Best Buy’s Geek Squad? The key clauses in the patent application seem to indicate this just might be the case: “International Class 037: Maintenance, installation and repair of computer hardware, computer peripherals, computer networks, and consumer electronic devices; information, advisory and consultancy services relating to all the aforesaid.” “International Class 042: Technical support and consulting services pertaining to computer hardware, computer peripherals, computer software and consumer electronics; troubleshooting and computer diagnostic services for computer hardware, computer peripherals, computer software and consumer electronic devices; consulting services in the field of selection, implementation and use of computer hardware and software systems for others.” Would this be a good thing for Apple customers? Certainly being able to purchase additional on-site services directly from an Apple Store would be convenient. The Geniuses stay locked behind the bar (pun intended) and Apple relies on independent third-party sources who are often part of the Apple Consultants Network (ACN) or Apple Authorized Service Providers (AASP) to provide on-site service to Apple’s customers. For many of them, paying Apple directly to set up their Xserve or Airport Extreme may be a great idea and would be consistent with the offerings of big PC companies that provide end-to-end support for larger installations. Joint Venture members would be people trained by Apple, and specializing in Macs (unlike Best Buy’s on-site squad).

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Filed under: Apple Anyone struggling with the challenge of developing for the iPad , a platform whose hardware has not yet been released, should welcome iSimulate . For just ten bucks, you can test your applications using event inputs from a real device. Yes, you’ll be working with the limited geometry of an iPhone — fewer pixels, not the same device shape — but you’ll gain access to a much wider range of gesture and accelerometer events to help you debug and develop your apps. Using iSimulate involves little more than compiling in a framework and running an iPhone-based application that you download from the App Store. You’ll need to add -ObjC to your linker flags and include the Core Location framework. This latter is needed in order to provide simulated compass and GPS events to your app. Once run in the simulator, iSimulate will automatically find that running app and offer to link to it as shown in this video. It took me only a few minutes to bring my Xcode project into iSimulate compliance and get it working with the iPhone.

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Filed under: Apple Corporate , Hardware , Apple , MacBook Apple has begun replacing failed hard drives in MacBooks purchased between 2006 and 2007. The program will run until August 15th, 2010. Here are the details: The following models are covered: The 13-inch MacBook, 13-inch, Late 2006 model and the 13-inch, Mid 2007 MacBook (black and white). You must be able to prove that you’ve got a dead hard drive. Customers who paid for a HDD replacement on one of the above models may qualify to be reimbursed the repair costs. You can bring affected machines to an Apple Store or an Authorized Service Provider . Note that the reimbursement must be handled through Apple Technical Support ; you can’t receive reimbursement from an Apple Store or Authorized Service Provider. This program comes after Apple’s admission that “… a very small percentage of hard drives that were used in MacBook systems, sold between approximately May 2006 and December 2007, may fail under certain conditions.” If your MacBook’s hard drive is working, you can’t request a new one. It must be dead to qualify. [VIa Gizmodo ] Apple offering free hard drive replacements for certain MacBooks originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 17 Feb 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Apple offering free hard drive replacements for certain MacBooks originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 17 Feb 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds .

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Section: iPhone / iPod touch / iPad , iPhone , iDevice Accessories , Reviews Provides: Protection from scratches and scuffs Developer: XO Skins Minimum Requirements: iPhone 3G Price: $24.95 (Full Body) or $14.95 (Screen) Availability: Now I knew the XO skin was going to be a high quality product before I even opened the box. The packaging alone gave me some good vibes, and I was quite surprised by the contents inside as I opened it. I was expecting a plastic skin and nothing else (as per usual when buying skins), but instead got a few more items I soon found out were for applying and maintaining the skin, which confused me. I figured it would be as simple as putting the skin onto the iPhone, but I was wrong. The XO skin comes with a very detailed installation instruction sheet (with pictures!) that makes the process of applying the skin quite simple as long as you follow them properly. The included bottle of application spray and squeegee may intimidate you at first, but they actually make the process easier than applying some of the competing products that require you to continually lift and reapply the skin until you get the positioning perfect. It only took me about two minutes to apply the skin to my iPhone 3G. It is recommended that you wait overnight (12 hours) to let the skin set properly (something which I didn’t realize until after I applied the skin), which can be inconvenient to some. Also, if you do not follow the installation instructions properly, you’re at risk of water damage to your device due to the solution that you must spray on before applying the skin, which would be a pretty big price to pay for not following instructions. When it comes to quality, XO definitely went all in. This skin has to be one of the sturdiest that I have ever seen or used for the iPhone 3G. Scratching your screen is next to impossible with the skin on, I tried (not too aggressively, obviously) with a set of keys and a screwdriver, and couldn’t produce even the tiniest scratch, which is definitely a very good sign.

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Opening tonight in Brooklyn — an art exhibit based on obsolete Apple technology that examines the “fetishizing” of products that are soon discarded. The installations include a mechanical interpretation of Steve Jobs’ famous Stanford commencement speech, and a doormat with Bill Gates’ face on it. See the video and several pix after the jump. Running through mid-March, the

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If you’re having problems with your new 27-inch iMac, you’ll be interested to know that Apple released a fix via Software Update for the machines that’s said to resolve screen flicker issues. Now your expensive new purchase will only disappoint you in two or three other ways. Many users are also reporting issues with cracked screens and yellow tinting on the displays, with a gradient from cool to warm as you move from top to bottom down the monitor. I had the latter issue on two replacement iPhone 3GSes, too, so I can’t help but wonder if Apple’s increased ability to move product isn’t affecting quality control. Apple’s also passing the buck in the description of what the new fix for the software-based flicker problem actually does. To wit: The 27-inch iMac Graphics Firmware Update applies to the graphics firmware on ATI Radeon HD 4670 and 4850 graphics cards to address issues that may cause image corruption or the display to flicker. Elsewhere, the company notes that the firmware update isn’t a cure-all: If your screen remains black after applying the updater or if you continue to experience image corruption or display flickering after successfully completing this update, contact AppleCare or an Apple Authorized Service Provider. So not only does Cupertino seem to be blaming ATI for the issue, it’s not actually promising to necessarily fix anything with this update, either. Whether Apple goes with ATI or NVIDIA, it just can’t seem to avoid graphics card-related issues.

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Welcome to a new monthly series from TheAppleBlog . Each month we will cover a a specific topic specific to Small Businesses who use Macs. As a small business owner/sole proprietor, connecting with customers is hard. There are all sorts of communication tools available, with social media being the most prevalent today. However, as old-school as it might seem, email is still the killer-app for the web. And, given that, you must have a strategy to connect with your customers via email. Thankfully, there are many tools on the Mac available to help you do just that. What type of email campaigns might you use? Some examples might include: Marketing Slicks Press Releases Newsletters Advertisements And more For the purpose of this article, let’s look at both Pro editions of  Direct Mail from e3 Software and MaxBulk Mailer from MaxProg. Both applications are relatively easy to use, although I found Direct Mail to be a little easier to work with overall. Each version has more features than their basic counterparts.

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Gentlemen (and ladies!), fire up your Software Update — Apple’s elves may have something special for you on this Tuesday in early December. On deck for today’s installation is an AirPort Client update, matching EFI firmware updates for the MacBook and MacBook Pro, respectively, and a SuperDrive firmware update. AirPort Client Update 2009-002 is a 12.95 MB download recommended for all Macs running Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.2. The list of fixes include an inability to turn AirPort on or off in some cases after upgrading from Mac OS X Leopard, an occasional loss of network connection when using the Wake on Demand feature, and the inability to create a computer-to-computer network or share the Internet connection on some MacBooks, MacBook Pros and Mac mini computers. The MacBook EFI Firmware Update 1.8 (3.14 MB) and MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.8 (3.36 MB) both work to eliminate noise made by the optical disk drive during system startup or wake from sleep on their respective systems. After installing the EFI Firmware Update, you should run Software Update one more time, because Apple also has the 18.35 MB SuperDrive Firmware Update 3.0 available for you, which works in tandem with the EFI Firmware Update to reduce noise from the optical disk drive. iMac and Mac mini owners are also welcome to join the party as long as their EFI Firmware is up to date. All three firmware updates require Mac OS X 10.5.7 or later and plan time for a few system restarts, too. You can download the updates at Apple’s Support Downloads site or through Software Update.

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Filed under: Airport , Software Update , Apple , Macbook Pro , MacBook Apple today released several updates today including AirPort client software , and EFI firmware revisions for some MacBook and MacBook Pro models. First, the AirPort Client Update 2009-002 update fixes the following issues: An Inability to turn AirPort on or off in some cases after upgrading from Mac OS X Leopard. An occasional loss of network connection when using Wake on Demand. An Inability to create a computer-to-computer network, or share the Internet connection on some MacBook, MacBook Pro, and Mac mini computers. Next, the MacBook and MacBook Pro EFI updates allow the installation of SuperDrive Firmware Update 3.0 , reducing the noise of the optical disc drive when waking from sleep and startup. The SuperDrive firmware installation is a 2nd step; you need to do the EFI update, then check again for software updates. This update is available for the Late 2008 aluminum MacBook model and the Early 2009 and Mid 2009 white MacBook models, and for Late 2008 15 inch MacBook Pro models and Early 2009 17 inch MacBook Pro models. (The KB article for the MacBook EFI update may need a little editing, as it refers to a suggestion from a mysterious ‘Glenno.’) These updates are available through Software Update, or they’re available from Apple’s support page . Apple releases updates for AirPort software, MacBook and MacBook Pro EFI originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 08 Dec 2009 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Apple releases updates for AirPort software, MacBook and MacBook Pro EFI originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 08 Dec 2009 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Read | Read | Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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Those precocious, over-achieving iPhone users, always multitasking: Reading restaurant recommendations. Finding out where their friends are. Playing games. Foursquare and Gowalla let them do all three of those at once. These hybrid apps combine the iPhone’s location services, friends lists, databases of user-generated hot spots, and user-achievement systems borrowed from the world of videogames. While you’re out and about, you check in to nearby locations, letting your friends know where you are, even via optional push notification. You can leave a tip (“Try the corned beef!”) and create new entertainment spots that others should visit. Since these apps are so social–both can update your Facebook and Twitter feeds when you check in–we signed up a few friends and took our iPhones out for a night on the town.   Foursquare   Foursquare’s schtick is that if you check in somewhere more times than anyone else, you’re crowned “mayor” of that location. A handful of businesses will even reward your top-level status. For example, a San Francisco bar will give you a free beer if you become its mayor. The catch: While the GPS is used to find nearby places, you don’t actually have to be at a location to check in there. Foursquare lets you hide your location by going "off the grid." Foursquare works in 21 cities and counting, and it supports iPhone/iPod touch, Android phones, a mobile site for other smartphones, and SMS–check-in support. You get “badges” for different accomplishments, such as 30 check-ins in one month or five locations in one night. User-submitted tips and to-dos give you ideas for nearby places to try, but the implementation could be improved

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