Section: Haven’t caught all of the Appletell news this week?  Here’s your chance to catch up on this week’s top 10 articles! The mystery of the five missing iPad apps “We are living in that fun time between the announcement of a big Apple product and its actual release. We’ve been here many times before, but it’s always interesting. During this period, we all get to spend a lot of time discussing, evaluating and…” MORE » Appletell reviews the Technocel PowerPak portable battery and home charger ” Provides: Backup battery and home charging for USB devices Developer: Technocel Minimum Requirements: Compatible USB device Price: $49.99 Availability: Now Pretty much everything that can be thrown into a pocket or purse these days can…” MORE » Macworld 2010: Appletell’s most surprising finds “One of our favorite things to do each year at Macworld Expo is to wander the show floor with no pending meetings, and no agenda other than to see what we can find. Many of the venders are the same each year, using the expo as a time to launch…” MORE » Apple jerks “overtly sexual” apps from App Store ” Sex might sell, but Apple doesn’t care. If you’ve browsed the App Store before, you may have found that a large portion of apps are what we like to call “risqué.” Apple’s position on this topic has never…” MORE » Macworld 2010: Appletell’s favorite products “Although Macworld Expo 2010 was confined to just the north hall of Moscone Center this year, that doesn’t mean there wasn’t a wide array of great products. Now that we’ve had a chance to settle down and review our notes and brochures, the Appletell staff in attendance has selected our…” MORE » iPhone apps for your inner bibliophile “In the modern world, we tend to forget about books…unless, of course, you are a book lover (aka a bibliophile)—then you just can’t get enough of them. If that describes you, then these iPhone applications were developed just for you. They will allow you to get your book fix on…” MORE » Appletell reviews the Yamaha EPH-30 Headphones “Provides: In-ear sound Developer: Yamaha Minimum Requirements: Standard headphone jac Price: $39.95 Availability: Now I’m going to start this review with an aside; do you remember when white earbuds were an iPod symbol? Back before the…” MORE » Mac, iPhone, iPod and iPad product news – February 22, 2010 “Macintosh and iPhone/iPod/iPad product updates and announcements for February 22, 2010:  Macintosh iPod Macintosh Kanex has announced the official pre-order availability of its Macworld 2010…” MORE » Video chatting evidence found in iPhone 3.2 Software Development Kit ” iDevice video chatting—it’s the rumor that just won’t quit. This time, 9to5Mac found icons and references in the code of the iPhone 3.2 Software Development Kit that point a big old finger at video chatting

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Will Apple unveil a new line of MacBook Pros today? Some signs point to the possibility the Cupertino, Calif. may announce new laptops with faster chips to coincide with this week’s Macworld Expo 2010. The first tea leaf isa French gadget blog which quotes an anonymous source. The source “who works for Apple just tell me

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Filed under: Macworld , Apple Jim Dalrymple has been around the Mac community for years, so when he talks, people listen. That’s why yesterday’s post at Dalrymple’s blog, LoopInsight , was so fascinating and got me thinking about whether or not Dalrymple was right in his assertion that things don’t look good for the future of Macworld Expo. The post was titled ” Macworld Expo 2010: Success story or a disaster waiting to happen ,” and it outlined the reasons why this year’s Expo in San Francisco could very well be the last. Dalrymple begins tolling the death knell with a list of the big names that won’t be attending the show this year — Apple (of course), Adobe, Epson, and Griffin to name a few. He then brings up the fact that with a month to go until the doors open on the Expo, there are only 157 listed exhibitors. Many of those exhibitors are familiar to Apple fans, but then again, there are a lot of small and unknown iPhone developers on the list as well. Dalrymple’s point that even the press is turning away from the Expo is more daunting. Without a Steve Jobs keynote to attract the world media, the show seems to be entering its death throes. Less media attention means less attention to exhibitor products, which means fewer exhibitors are going to find it worthwhile to pay the price to display their wares. Continue reading Contemplating the uncertain future of Macworld Expo Contemplating the uncertain future of Macworld Expo originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 05 Jan 2010 20:00:00 EST.

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When it comes to New Year’s Eve, it’s all about the party. From elegant, seven-course dinners to all-night drunken ragers, how you ring in the new decade sets the tone for the remaining 365 days; and since we don’t have the Macworld Expo to look forward to this year, the effects of a bad party can cast a particularly gloomy cloud over the first few weeks of 2010. But this year, you hold your own fate in your hands–literally. With an iPhone in your pocket, even the lamest of gatherings can be magically transformed into something that’s at least cool enough to chronicle on your Facebook page. The bad date The only thing worse than a bad party is a bad companion. Since you can’t exactly run out on your date (at least not before midnight, anyway), there are several iPhone-approved ways to avoid face time with your insignificant other. The easiest way to steal away for an hour or so is to fake an excuse. Using any number of sham phone call apps (we like Fake a Call , which lets you set a timer, voice type, ringtone and number with ease), you can trick your date into thinking an important call is coming through from your mom, sister, best friend (just make sure they’re not actually at the party), or, if you’re desperate, your doctor or boss. Or, to really sell the emergency, ignore the faux call and send yourself a fake follow-up text . With phase one complete (separation), you can move on to phase two, circumvention. Now, there are several ways to accomplish this, with varying degrees of difficulty. The simplest, of course, is to use your fake caller as an excuse to bail, but if you don’t want to worry about corroborating stories, head over to Google and find an illness

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You might have missed Welcome to Macintosh when it debuted at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco earlier this year, and you may have chosen to save $15 by not picking it up on the App Store, but no need to fret : the indie documentary that intimately examines the history of Apple will be

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Resourceful web sleuths recently uncovered both a domain registration and trademark  for “iSlate” under Apple’s name — but not so quick, there may be more here than meets the eye. It’s amusing to look back three years ago and compare the Apple tablet rumors to the ones prior to the iPhone being announced at Macworld Expo 2007. But one thing the iPhone rumors accurately pegged was the name of the device — and until this week, there wasn’t much speculation on what Apple’s fabled tablet would be called. MacRumors has been digging around since it was uncovered that Apple has registered iSlate.com as well as trademarking the iSlate name, and they’ve now disclosed that Apple has another trademark registration that might fit the bill, courtesy of iGuide Media, LLC. Like the iSlate trademark registration, iGuide Media, LLC is also a Delaware-based company with the sole purpose of securing a trademark on Apple’s behalf — in this case, for “iGuide.” An application for the trademark was first filed in December, 2007 and they bear Apple’s Senior Trademark Specialist Regina Porter’s signature, so the two companies appear linked in some way. Also making this one of those things that make you go “Hmmm…”: The lawyer handling the paperwork for the iGuide trademark also filed the same for the iPhone trademark under Ocean Telecom Services (again on behalf of Apple). MacRumors concludes that iGuide Media, LLC has been created strictly for the purpose of securing a trademark on iGuide. The trademark classification for iGuide is the most telling clue, painting a picture of an all-purpose media browser: “Computer hardware and computer software for accessing, browsing, searching, recording, organizing, storing, transmitting, receiving, manipulating, streaming, reproducing, playing, and reviewing audio, video, games, music, television, movies, photographs, and other multimedia content.” And if that’s not enough evidence, a later passage details such content: “Downloadable electronic publications in the nature of books, magazines, newsletters, journals, and blogs in the fields of entertainment, sports, science, history, culture, celebrities, news, current events, politics, technology, and education…” Assuming that the special event that Apple is hosting on January 26th is indeed to throw back the curtain on the long-rumored tablet, we may all know in less than a month what these names mean for the company…

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It’s the final countdown, people. One more week until we find out here whether or not Santa’s tucking some coal in our stockings or maybe just a couple iPod touches. Meanwhile, to distract yourself and steady your eggnog-dizzied head, why not peep the hottest stories cooking over our Mac|Life Yule log? Features: – 50 Rad Firefox Add-Ons – Ah, browser add-ons and extensions. While we like the zip of Safari or Chrome when we really need something, nothing beats Firefox for customizability. Sure, everyone’s got all the big name AdBlock add-ons and that sort of thing, but here’s a goodly list of tons more great ways to make the web your web. – 10 Years After Y2K — Stories From the IT Battlegrounds – The kiddies on the site might not remember all the hoopla that surrounded the big tote board turnover from 1999 to 2000, but we oldsters recall the hype. Planes would crash, the global economy would seize up, the nukes would launch without provocation, digital clocks inside computers would all turn back to 1900 and you’d be forced to wear monocles and dance the "kickapoo." And, of course, none of that happened, but a lot of survivalist stores and IT alarmists made some decent coin cashing in on the fear. – Will CES Eat Macworld Expo’s Lunch? – The answer is clearly, yes. After Apple jumped ship from the jumbomatic nerdfest that is the annual rite of passage, Macworld Expo, superjumbo tech show CES is gobbling up Mac-related vendors and expanding their Mac space at the exhibit. Does this spell the end of Macworld Expo

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Section: Apple News , Conferences , Macworld , Features , Originals That time of year is coming up again. And no, I’m not talking about Christmas. This event is going on February 9th through the 13th , and is known as the Macworld Expo. And yes, while it’s sad that Apple won’t be appearing this year, you might also be surprised to hear who else isn’t showing up. Despite IDG mentioning HP, Microsoft, FastMac, Shure and Intuit had already signed up during their town hall meeting last January, the exhibitor list they’ve posted says otherwise. Currently missing from there are both Microsoft and Intuit. Other than imitating Apple as Microsoft commonly does, why would they choose to also leave the Macworld expo? While the answer to that question is currently unknown, there could be a few reasons. For one, maybe it is simply that Microsoft doesn’t feel a need to be present at an event for Mac products that Apple isn’t even present at

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Apple recently introduced two new formats, iTunes LP and iTunes Extras , which deliver additional content to album and movie purchases, respectively. Apple also only just updated the iTunes Store Terms and Conditions agreement, and AppleInsider spotted some key changes in that document that point to an upcoming Apple TV update that will support the new formats. It seems inevitable that the new bonus material featured in LP and Extra releases, which includes things like photos, videos, mini-documentaries and commentary, would become accessible on Apple’s home theater device, but this is the first official confirmation that it is in fact on the way. It would seem to suggest that we’ll see the update sooner rather than later, too. Both iTunes LP and iTunes Extras are based on the TuneKit JavaScript format, which uses HTML, CSS and other open web standards. It’s designed for a 1280×720 pixel resolution, which fits perfectly with HD TV sets and the HD output resolution of the Apple TV. While it may not come as a surprise, a new major update for the Apple TV firmware would be the first big one since the “Take Two” 2.0 update that came at Macworld Expo in January 2008. Other things expected to arrive with it include Quicktime X and the HTTP Live Streaming protocol, both of which were recently introduced as features of OS X Snow Leopard. It sounds like it’s shaping up to be a decent little upgrade for Apple’s main foray into the living room, but it doesn’t really sound like anything that’s going to turn heads among people who are on the fence about buying the device. Apple has recently taken some steps to increase Apple TV sales, including getting rid of the 40 GB model altogether and dropping the price of the 160 GB version. Which is great, but there’s still a lot more Apple should be doing to make the device viable.

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I’ve been playing around with Google Quick Search Box lately and am especially enjoying this services plugin from Martin Kuhl which lets you activate and pass input to OS X services right from within QSB. One snag though has been that services created through the new Automator template included in Snow Leopard leave out some vital bits that limit integration. Luckily, a handy application from Waffle Software called ThisService makes creating proper services that integrate seamlessly with QSB a lot easier than you might think. Being able to extend the functionality of QSB with OS X services really opens up a lot of possibilities. Grab text or files in QSB and pass them on to your services to do whatever you want with them, like creating a new To Do item in iCal. I’ve been focused recently on replicating functionality that I lost when I made the switch over from Quicksilver and I think that this improved service integration will get me about 90 percent of the way there. The bad news is that this means I need to whip up a bunch of custom services for myself. The good news is that ThisService makes that task very easy. Just give it a script (AppleScript will do, but if you’re more comfortable with other scripting languages you can use those), define the type and name of your service and click Create Service. ThisService handles all the fiddly Cocoa bits and spits out a completed service into your ~/Library/Services directory where QSB will see it and serve it up as an available action when appropriate.

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