Appletell

A number of videos of the purported 6G iPod User Interface have been provided anonymously to MacRumors. It has been previously rumored that the latest iteration of the iPod would be released August 7th, along with new iMacs. The new UI is a cross between the current click-wheel interface, and the more “touchable” iPhone. It’s unclear whether these are official videos or not; however, the graphics in the videos are quite good if these are in fact faked.

The design does corroborate with some of the latest patents, which continue to include click-wheels, which would lead one to assume that Apple could be designing a touchscreen click-wheel hybrid, which would upgrade everyone’s favorite music player without cannibalizing sales of the iPhone.

Read [MacRumors]

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What is CUPS you ask? Simply put, it’s a printing system already in Mac OS X and Linux. Up until today, CUPS was an open source project under the distribution of Easy Software. Apple’s new ownership of the system will not affect the GNU general public licence. In addition, the company hired project creator Michael R. Sweet, who will continue to work on CUPS at Apple.

Read [TUAW]

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A number of new patent applications were released today describing usage in Apple’s iLife and iWork suites. The patent applications are as follows: “Movie Authoring”, “Text flow in and around irregular containers”, “Predictive styling”, “Automatic sub-template selection based on content”, “User interface for Web page creation/editing”, and “Publishing and subscribing to digital image feeds”. The filings aren’t particularly interesting, as the features aren’t revolutionary, nor do they imply any special Leopard-only features. MacNN has the full deets on each of the patent applications. 

Read [MacNN]

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As much as the fanboys love their rumour sites, from AppleInsider to MacScoop, there’s another segment of the grapevine that has been known to leak the latest Apple news (and I’m not talking Mossberg here). They are analysts of course - and their latest predictions are in.

Analyst Mike Abramsky for RBC Capital:

Apple will meet it’s iPhone sales goal of 10 million in the first 18 months 16GB and lower priced iPhones for 2007, 3G and larger resolution displays for 2008 Canadian and European iPhone launches between Q4 ‘07 and Q2 ‘08 Asia iPhone launch by mid-2008 New nano and video iPods by the end of 2007 with larger displays, more memory, and Wi-Fi There will be no “iPhone nanos”

Analyst Gene Munster for Piper Jaffray:

80% chance of new iMacs soon a 13-inch ultra-portable is under development Mac OS X-based iPods are under development

Read [AppleInsider] and [MacNN]

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DigiTimes, citing “sources at upstream suppliers”, is reporting that new iPods based on multi-touch technology will be arriving in August. Although slightly earlier than predicted by analyst Gene Munster (who estimated an arrival by MacWorld ‘08), it has been assumed for a while that a new iPod, based on the iPhone, would be released eventually. The iPod will presumably feature an iPhone-like OS as well, noting comments made by Steve Jobs earlier this year. The question is, will it have Wi-Fi and Safari?

Read [MacRumors]

That’s the reason according to Michael Geist, Canada research chair of Internet and e-commerce law at the University of Ottawa: “The barrier to the iPhone in Canada is not Apple. Rather, it is the lack of wireless competition that [...] leads to pricing that places Canadians at a significant disadvantage compared with other developed countries.“ Canada’s cell phone market is owned primarily by Telus, Bell, and Rogers, of which only Rogers supports the GSM standard.

As AppleInsider notes, Rogers currently charges $210 for a 500MB data plan, quite a high price compared to the new AT&T plan for the iPhone, which prices unlimited data at about $20 US.

Read [AppleInsider]

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Woah there, slow down! It’s not what you think. Apple hasn’t dropped the price of digital albums to the equivalent price of a used CD. Well, not the ones you’ll probably be looking for, at least. The company has brokered a deal with indie bands who they claim “have the true grit (or pure luck) it takes to become the next big thing. Not only that, but we’re offering these albums for $6.99 or less.“

The featured list includes such eclectic sounds as The Kooks, LCD Soundsytem, Alicastro, and Unk. A good deal for indie fans, but not much for the rest of us.

Read [Engadget]

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David Pogue, tech journalist at the New York Times, brings us a humorous follow-up to his iPhone video review with another “digital short”. The latest comical video follows Pogue’s story as he ditches his cell phone, and purchases the iPhone on opening night at the Fifth Ave Apple Store. The twist? It’s a musical!

In addition to having random line waiters signing, the clip features Pogue’s standard tongue-in-cheek jabs at Apple and it’s fan-base (of which he counts himself). Annoyingly, the New York Times doesn’t embed video, so you’ll just have to trot on over there yourself to view it.

View [NYTimes]

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According to the Times Online, O2 has won the exclusive carrier contract to bring Apple’s iPhone to the UK this Christmas. It just goes to show, that rumors, no matter how strong, don’t always come true. Apple has apparently decided to pursue the European market country-by-country, rather than providing the phone via one carrier (see: Vodafone) for the whole region.

In addition, Vodafone did not want to cave into Apple’s very particular demands in the contract. Of interesting note, O2 is owned by parent company Telefonica, the rumored carrier of the iPhone in Spain. The article also suggests that Apple is expected to sign on with T-Mobile in Germany (as previously reported), and Orange in France. Now, if we can just find out whether Apple will be doing an iPhone 1.1 with 3G capabilities…

Read [Times Online] via [MacRumors]

• Walmart will sell iPhone, just not for the holidays
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• Apple launches new iPhone Your Life site

Engadget reports that four files have been discovered in the iPhone firmware, possibly revealing Apple’s plan to release the mobile in Europe. The files are as follows:

Default_CARRIER_ATT.png
Default_CARRIER_CINGULAR.png
Default_CARRIER_TMOBILE.png
Default_CARRIER_VODAFONE.png

Obviously, this seemingly divulges that Apple is planning to partner with both T-Mobile and Vodafone in Europe. This corroborates with current rumours stating these two companies would be the exclusive carriers across the pond. Vodafone has service in nearly all Western European countries, while T-Mobile current only serves Germany, the UK, Hungary, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Montengero, Poland, and Slovakia.

Read [Engadget]

• Apple launches new iPhone Your Life site
• Walmart will sell iPhone, just not for the holidays
• Ocarina Wars: A challenger appears!