UPDATE: Seth at 9to5Mac is now backtracking. While he says he’s received multiple tips that Mac Pros will be updated, he thinks the MacBook Pros tip might have been fake. “Shame on us,” he says. Our friend Seth Weintraub at 9to5Mac thinks MacBooks and Mac Pros will be updated within a week. Seth received a tip

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With just a few weeks to go before the iPad hits stores, here’s the best way to ensure you’re at the head of the line to get one (or three). If history is any indication, the iPad will be in short supply when it goes on sale April 3. Plus there are rumors of production delays

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Almost as soon as the iPad was shown in Steve Jobs’ hands back in late January, speculation ran rampant about whether or not some of the stock iPhone applications were missing in action, or simply consolidated into some kind of secret “widget mode.” MacRumors is letting the air out of the so-called “secret widget mode,” a theory that missing iPhone applications have been included on the iPad, revealed only by way of some kind of Mac OS X Dashboard-style magic (with a five-finger gesture being proposed). Among the missing apps are Stocks, Weather, Voice Memo, Clock and Calculator. But according to Daring Fireball’s John Gruber , his sources dispute that there’s any kind of “secret widget mode” and that the missing apps were in fact scrapped by Apple CEO Steve Jobs. “It’s not that Apple couldn’t just create bigger versions of these apps and have them run on the iPad,” Gruber writes. “It wasn’t a technical problem, it was a design problem. There were, internally to Apple (of course), versions of these apps (or least some of them) with upscaled iPad-sized graphics, but otherwise the same UI and layout as the iPhone versions. “Ends up that just blowing up iPhone apps to fill the iPad screen looks and feels weird, even if you use higher-resolution graphics so that nothing looks pixelated,” Gruber continues. “So they were scrapped by you-know-who. Perhaps they’ll appear on the iPad in some re-imagined form this summer with OS 4.0, but when the iPad ships next month, there won’t be versions of these apps. At least that’s the story I’ve heard from a few well-informed little birdies.” Furthermore, Gruber notes that while iPhone games will work well on the iPad, simpler “non-game iPhone applications” may feel strange on the new device, regardless of which method they are run (blown up to full screen or at native resolution as a small box in the center of the screen). It seems like the iPad will be an entirely new user experience, which will likely require a lot more app tweaking to make enhanced versions of existing apps work well. We’ll all know soon enough, as the Wi-Fi enabled iPad will finally be available on April 3…

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(Images courtesy of AppleInsider) Veteran Mac database software FileMaker Pro 11 was released Tuesday, and among the new features are improved chart visuals, on the fly reporting, Quick Find and a host of new productivity tools to make database creation faster and easier. Apple’s FileMaker Inc. subsidiary announced the latest version of their flagship software today with FileMaker Pro 11. But they didn’t stop there: Updates are available for the entire product line, including FileMaker Pro 11 Advanced, FileMaker Server 11 and FileMaker Server 11 Advanced, according to AppleInsider . "FileMaker Pro 11 is designed for solving real-world business problems, such as the need for interpreting business data," explains FileMaker Inc. vice president of marketing and services Ryan Rosenberg. "With easy-to-use integrated charting, we bring dynamic visual reporting to FileMaker Pro 11 users. We also provide new tools to boost all users’ productivity, helping novice and expert users alike build, share and publish better databases." Among the new features, FileMaker Pro 11 offers dynamic professional-quality pie, bar, area or line charts which allow users to visualize, evaluate and report on data in a new or existing layout. Add a pie chart tab within an existing layout, for example, and you can see your sales charted graphically in any way you choose

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Future iPad owners are patiently waiting for the yet unreleased device, but if rumors have their way, we could see "minor delays" in production of the much anticipated device. According to AppleInsider , Taiwanese manufacturers are experiencing delays in getting the devices out the door. Current production rumors estimate only 200,000 to 250,000 devices are currently being produced monthly. However, an industry analyst believes that this is a temporary problem (not relate to the manufacturing process) that should correct itself to production numbers between 800,000 to 1 million in April/May. We don’t yet know Apple’s release strategy for the iPad, but if rumors are true, this could mean long waiting lines possibly both online and in-stores — especially if the release goes like the first generation iPhone launch did. Another AppleInsider article claims Apple is attempting to join other tablet manufacturers in being a part in the estimated tablet industry shipment of 10.5 million tablet-styled devices. What does this mean for Apple? Well, the Wall Street Journal has estimated that Apple could sell anywhere from 1 million to 5 million iPads, while other analysts are reporting between 600,000 and 700,000. Only time will tell how the device actually does in terms of sales, but if the iPhone is any comparison, the iPad could turn out to be the tablet device for other companies to try to "beat." 

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Since when did Gordon Freeman become a Mac head? Actually, he’s apparently just hiding Valve’s really big secret. Tuaw , MacNN and MacRumors are all investigating the purpose behind the Valve-plus-Apple teaser images in their inboxes. Could it be that Valve is bringing the best of PC gaming over to the Mac? The rumor is that Valve has some sort of huge Mac announcement to make this week, though Mac news outlets everywhere are trying to pinpoint what exactly the announcement will entail. Will it be the release of a Mac OS X version of Steam? Will it be an epic port over of every Valve title known to man? Or is Portal 2 going to be released for both the PC and the Mac?  Over here at Mac|Life headquarters, we’d be incredibly happy to hear that any of these scenarios could turn into reality. After all, do you know what this means ? Frag fests with your best buddies still chained to their loud, unchic Windows computers, and more ways to utilize that Nvidia graphics processor in your iMac or MacBook Pro. Check below for a look at the photos in question, head over to the sources for a closer look, and let us know what you think in the comments! We really love this one: Image source: MacNN

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Sources from within Apple are claiming that the iPad will be in stores starting March 10, if a recent Examiner post is to be believed. Examiner’s report claims that the tablet devices will be hitting Apple retail stores early in order to give employees and employees only , plenty of time to get up-to-speed with using the new tablet device, ahead of its official launch. The iPad is expected to arrive before the month is out, with many blogs increasingly hinting at a March 26 launch date . Examiner sources, which allegedly include an anonymous “Apple Store manager in Southern California,” also claimed that the iPad’s advertisement campaign will kick off around the 15th of this month. The advertisement campaign is said to be focusing heavily on the iBookstore and e-book capabilities of the upcoming device, no doubt with an intent to take some steam out of the Kindle’s successes. Finally, the Examiner report also hinted that individuals who set up camp ahead of the launch, in order to become one of the first to get their hands on an iPad, will be rewarded. Just what this Apple related reward may be is unknown.

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Section: Rumors , iPhone / iPod touch / iPad , iPad According to analyst Peter Misek with Canaccord Adams, production issues involved with the iPad could not only limit the launch of the device to only 300,000 units, it could even cause a one month delay in the arrival of the iPad to the marketplace. Due to this, Misek is also assuming that Apple’s third quarter sales of the device will be lower than expected at only 550,000 due to the possible production delay. That said, he believes that Apple will sell 1.2 million by the end of the 2010 fiscal year and 3.5 million by the end of 2011. Misek had this to say: The upcoming iPad launch may be somewhat limited as a manufacturing bottleneck has impacted production of Apple’s newest device. An unspecified production problem at the iPad’s manufacturer, Hon Hai Precision, will likely limit the launch region to the US and the number of units available to roughly 300K in the month of march, far lower than the company’s initial estimate of 1,000K units. It will certainly be interesting to see if this is, in fact, the case. While a limited amount of units for sales is more likely, a production delay would mark the first time in a while Apple has pushed back a deadline on a hardware product (and I’m sure Steve Jobs wouldn’t be happy about that). On the upside, however, is that a delay in the sales of the device would allow developers more time to fine tune their applications for the device (at least on the simulator). That said, the possible wait may still be somewhat painful for people eagerly waiting for this product. Via [ Apple Insider ] Full Story » | Written by Josh Holat for Appletell . | Comment on this Article »

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Writing in the Huffington Post, Larry Magid raises the point that PC netbooks are hot sellers for very good reasons — namely that these small laptops, which typically cost between $300 and $400, can do most things a large portion of users want to do with a laptop computer, and do them much more cheaply, as well as being handily smaller and lighter than traditional laptops. Small Laptop Price Premium Dynamic Turned On Its Head I agree, and along with Magid note the irony of a changing dynamic where, reversing erstwhile conventional wisdom that computer consumers would be obliged to pay extra for the required engineering of miniaturization, with smaller laptops often costing more than larger siblings of the same brand (think PowerBook Duo vs. PowerBook or MacBook Air and MacBook), netbooks have turned the cost/weight equation on its head. Mainstream netbooks, particularly ones equipped with the latest Intel Atom N270 processors running at 1.60 GHz, with a GB of RAM and a 160GB hard drive, are perfectly adequate for most common tasks people use computers for such as Web surfing and e-mail, and even for watching web video. At least for non-touch typists, their usually undersized keyboards are also considered tolerable. Downward Pressure On All Laptop Pricing Then there’s the netbook phenomenon’s collateral effect of exerting strong downward pressure on standard sized notebook computer prices, to which even Apple has not been immune, as exemplified by the 13″ MacBook Pro being cheaper than its aluminum unibody MacBook predecessor, and the debut of a lower entry level 15″ MacBook Pro stripped of its ExpressCard Slot and discrete graphics processor/VRAM. A prima facie topical example is Lenovo’s new ThinkPad Edge , which has a 13-inch display, a typically excellent Lenovo full-size keyboard, an AMD Athlon dual-core processor, 2GB of RAM, a 320GB 5400 RPM hard drive, three USB ports, runs Windows 7, offers five-hour real world battery runtime, and is priced starting at an easy-on-the-wallet $599. Move up to a 1.3GHz Core Duo Intel processor and 4GB of memory and you’re still at $799. That’s of course only $200 less than Apple’s entry-level MacBook, which at $999 has a much more powerful 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo processor and Nvidia 9600M integrated graphics, but only 2GB of RAM, a measly two USB ports, and a 250GB hard drive. To get the same 4GB of memory and 320GB of storage specs as the $799 Lenovo or even a $399 Dell Inspiron 15, you’re up to $1,149, while a comparable spec MacBook Pro will set you back a whopping (by comparison) $1,399 — a thousand dollars greater than your typical netbook.

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Section: Rumors , Macintosh / Apple Hardware , Desktop Macs , Mac mini According to sources over at Apple Insider, we may see the first Macs sporting HDMI connections on the market in the near future. Apparently, prototypes of a new Mac Mini have been seen that contain connections for both DisplayPort and HDMI, but otherwise look the same. While the Mac Mini is at the lower end of Apple’s market as far as computers go, it does make sense that it would be one of the first (other than the Apple TV) to have an HDMI port since it is built upon the principle of bringing your own peripherals. Interestingly enough, the Apple TV HDMI spec allows for the transfer of both audio and video rather than just video like DVI or DisplayPort ports, eliminating the need for a second audio cable connection to the device. This would make it even easier to place a newer Mac Mini as a sort of digital media hub in one’s home. While it is just a rumor, I’d love to see an HDMI connection on the Mac Mini rather than just simply updating the specs as they usually do. Via [ Apple Insider ] Product [ Mac mini ] Full Story » | Written by Josh Holat for Appletell . | Comment on this Article »

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