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Yes, it is true. Apple has launched the App Store, the NDA is lifted and now everyone can finally talk about their applications! The store went live this morning with about 550+ applications, ranging from Super Monkey Ball to an Abacus (for only $0.99, you can count and calculate on this fully customizable abacus!).

If you would like to get in on all of the App Store good-ness, downloading iTunes 7.7 (Apple’s site still lists 7.6, but Software Update has 7.7) will let you purchase applications from the store. At the time of writing, there wasn’t an “official” link to the App Store from the iTunes homepage, but you can access it by following one of the links above, or by going into preferences of 7.7, and checking the box that will have “Applications” show up in your iTunes sidebar. Searching for an application in iTunes will also bring up it’s information page.

There is quite a selection available right off the bat, so those of you who have iPhones and iPod Touches have plenty to play around with. Now all that’s left is for Apple to release the iPhone 2.0 update so that you can actually use these applications on your device. Keep an eye out on the App Store, as more applications are expected to be added in the coming days.

• Free Apps roundup for November 20th, 2009
• It’s no surprise Apple considered purchasing AdMob
• Apple’s Black Friday to be surprisingly bright?

If you have been paying attention to Apple’s recently released product’s, you may notice something slightly about them. You may have noticed that they are beginning to stray from their current multi-colored logo, to a more plain logo. Instead of just using the stock six-colored logo on their products, they could now come in a range of colors, like “Burnt Orange” and Purple.

The recently released PowerMac G3’s sport a blue Apple logo on the side, which may look weird at first, but it grows on you. Fortunately, Apple is still keeping with the “bitten apple” shape, instead of going for a total redesign like when the six-color logo was first released back in the 70s.

With this change, Apple is trying to integrate their logos into the products more smoothly. Instead of the Apple logo clashing with the overall design of the product, it will be more subtly integrated into the overall design.

Who knows what this will spell for Apple in the future. The logo looks a little less creative, is now almost a plain as the IBM logo. This could end up hurting Apple’s brand recognition, but does help the design a little. Though how important is design to Apple when compared to brand recognition?

• Free Apps roundup for November 20th, 2009
• It’s no surprise Apple considered purchasing AdMob
• Apple’s Black Friday to be surprisingly bright?

In what may be one of the biggest achievements Apple may have this millennium, they have managed to fit a computer inside of a 9.8x7.7x7.7 cube. Officially dubbed the “PowerMac G4 Cube,” the Cube features a 450MHz processor based on the PowerPC G4 architecture, and a standard 64MB of RAM. It is a testament to Apple’s engineering and innovation to be able to fit a computer into such a small enclosure. I will be surprised if Apple is ever able to create a smaller computer than this. I mean really.

So far, the Cube has received many mixed reviews. Some people are absolutely in love with it, while others absolutely despise. The Cube’s form factor is quite attractive to me, though I may have to sell Apple the rights to my first born and part of my house to afford it. At a base price of $1799USD, it will cost you a pretty penny to have this piece of art.

One thing that you need to keep in mind though, is that the Cube does not come with a display. It supports resolutions up to 1900x1200. Once you buy your own display, you will be set, as it does come with an Apple Keyboard, and Mouse.

With this announcement, Apple is certainly pushing the boundaries of computer design. What are your thoughts on the new Cube?

• Free Apps roundup for November 20th, 2009
• It’s no surprise Apple considered purchasing AdMob
• Apple’s Black Friday to be surprisingly bright?

If you have been waiting for Apple to really update their power horses, today is your lucky day! Today at Macworld SF, the Powermac G3 was introduced, which replaces it’s younger sibling of the same name. The new machines features a 300-400MHz processor (still based on the PowerPC G3 architecture), a folding side which allows access to the guts of the G3, and the ability to install up to 1GB of RAM!

With this new release, comes a brand new case design, with a blue or white plastic enclosure, as opposed to a beige enclosure. The new design looks worlds better than the previous model Powermacs, and I am sure that Apple will radically change the case design again in the next few revisions of this model.

These new machines show Apple’s taking a step toward radical new designs, instead of keeping with the common place look of IBM machines. From now on,
when you see an Apple computer, you know it’s an Apple computer.
Image Courtesy of Apple

• Free Apps roundup for November 20th, 2009
• It’s no surprise Apple considered purchasing AdMob
• Apple’s Black Friday to be surprisingly bright?

If the first little teaser of the iPhone’s upcoming app store we reported on earlier this week didn’t do anything for you, The Boy Genius Report now has extensive photos of the iPhone 2.0 update scheduled for release later this year. There are 38 photos in total which cover everything from the Calendar to Parental Controls. Many of the things featured in these photos are things that Steve Jobs, Phil Schiller and Scott Forstall went over or mentioned at the media event earlier this month.

Being Canadian, I don’t have an iPhone (yet), so I don’t have a lot to compare these new screenshots to, to see what has changed. The iPhone 2.0 developer build ships with a game called Lunar Lander, which demos the iPhone gaming features showcased at the media event. It is not known whether this is just a game to help developers get a better idea of how they can utilize the iPhones hardware, or if it will also ship with the iPhone 2.0 update released to the masses. Nevertheless, the new features and applications that are going to be introduced in the iPhone 2.0 update are sure to please both business users and personal users.

Via [MacRumors] Photos [The Boy Genius Report]

• Free Apps roundup for November 20th, 2009
• It’s no surprise Apple considered purchasing AdMob
• Apple’s Black Friday to be surprisingly bright?

According to a study done by Duke University and the University of Waterloo, it can.

The study, which is to be published in April, found that exposure to well-known brands, even for a second, can cause us to behave in ways similar to the traits of the companies. 341 students took part in the experiment which consisted of flashing either an IBM or Apple logo so quickly, that the research subject was unaware what logo they had just seen. They were then asked to list all the uses of a brick beyond building a wall. The results? The students who were shown the Apple logo came up with more unusual uses for the brick, as opposed to those shown the IBM logo.

If the researchers are correct in saying that we can be influenced by advertising even when we are not aware of the fact, these results are not surprising. Anyone who is reading this blog right now knows that Apple has long since associated itself with creativity, and innovation. IBM on the other hand is almost the opposite of Apple in brand recognition.

The whole article is an interesting read, and I’m sure there must be a way for us to use this sub-concious recognition to our advantage…

Read [PhysOrg]

• Free Apps roundup for November 20th, 2009
• It’s no surprise Apple considered purchasing AdMob
• Apple’s Black Friday to be surprisingly bright?

For the Apple fan who has everything, I bring you “Mac OS X pillows.” These pillows come in your familiar Finder, Dashboard, iChat, iTunes, iPhoto and Photo Booth icons, and I’m sure that more may be added in the future. The pillows are being produced by Throw Boy, which apparently is launching the line soon.

If you are sewing-savvy, it probably wouldn’t be too hard to produce some of these pillows on your own, but it’s always nice to have a professional touch. Gizmodo has a post claiming the pillows are $20, but a price isn’t yet listed on the site. If you like, you can also sign up on the site to be informed when you can actually buy these pillows.

Read [Omni Group]

• Free Apps roundup for November 20th, 2009
• It’s no surprise Apple considered purchasing AdMob
• Apple’s Black Friday to be surprisingly bright?

Yesterday, We reported on a cheat that would allow you to circumvent Apple’s time constraints on movie rentals. The cheat would allow you to increase the time before the rental expired by years. By setting your clock forward weeks, months etc., you could trick iTunes into giving you a lot more time to finish your flick.

This bug worked in both Mac and Windows, but the same day that Gizmodo reported on it, Apple apparently dropped a fix. Changing your system time and then trying to play movies now gives a “5103 error.” Of course with such a huge bug, I didn’t expect it to take very long for Apple to implement fix, but a few hours must be a record for them.

Gizmodo said they would continue to play around with their system time to see if they could find another way to trick iTunes, but I think Apple has gotten all the bases covered now.

• Free Apps roundup for November 20th, 2009
• It’s no surprise Apple considered purchasing AdMob
• Apple’s Black Friday to be surprisingly bright?

Apparently Steve Jobs isn’t as nice as he would have you believe. Fangirl “Violet Blue” re-tells her experience of walking up to Steve and asking him for a picture:

So, I saw that Steve Jobs was just hanging out on the Macworld expo floor, not in conversation, not talking to anyone, and poking at his phone in the middle of the public so I walked over. Thinking a girl—in this case, a fangirl, me—will never get anything if she doesn’t ask for it, I lightly touched his arm and said “hi“. He looked at me, and I blushingly asked if it would be okay for me to ask if I could take a picture with him. [...] He told me curtly, flatly that I was rude. And turned his back to me. The small circle of people around him sniggered. That woman you see actually snort-laughed at me, and rolled her eyes.

Now the man standing to Steve’s right is Phil Schiller, and the woman is Katie Cotton, who is Apple’s PR head. She posted this picture (to the right) on her Flickr account, which is the only picture she was able to get of Steve since he declined to take one with her in it. Shortly after she was “blown-off” by Steve, Robert Scoble captured her on video sharing her experience. Whether or not her story is exactly what happened, we may never know.

If what “Violet Blue” is saying is true, it sort of changes my view of Steve a bit. Though if a random person came up to me and touched my arm and asked for a picture, I would be a little concerned as well. You can read Fake Steve’s response to the matter, as real Steve hasn’t commented yet.

Via [Tech Digest]

• Free Apps roundup for November 20th, 2009
• It’s no surprise Apple considered purchasing AdMob
• Apple’s Black Friday to be surprisingly bright?

For those of you who are lucky enough to be in the San Francisco area this evening, it’s time to get your party on! Phill Ryu and John Casasanta of MacHeist, and Austin Sarner of AppZapper, are once again hosting a Delicious Generation Party this evening. The party will be full of Mac developers, media, food and even beer. Here’s what the Delicious Generation website has to say about this year’s party:

Last year, we brought hundreds of users, developers, and members of the media together for an amazing night of food, beer, and software. We’ve decided to do it again this year… with a little more sizzle. Introducing the Delicious Generation bash 2.0 at Macworld. Our party is a great opportunity to meet your favorite Mac developer, and we’d like to extend a special invitation to the developers attending Macworld. Prepare for another night to remember - exclusively at Macworld 2008.

As of writing, some of the people who have RSVP’d on their site include Apple employees, Adobe employees, bloggers from TUAW, and the Pixelmatrix Design. The party is from 8:00pm-12:00am, and will be held at Elan (Google Maps link). Space is limited, and is largely focused at the press and developers attending Macworld 2008. Though if you have an interest in Mac software, and are in the area, I’m sure they would love to say hi.

• Free Apps roundup for November 20th, 2009
• It’s no surprise Apple considered purchasing AdMob
• Apple’s Black Friday to be surprisingly bright?