Appletell

The iPhone 2.0 firmware is looking even more promising, with the inclusion of photo geotagging. For those not familiar with Geotagging, it’s the process of giving a photo an accurate location on a global map — for some, it may sound like a pointless process — but it is in fact a very useful one. Normally, GPS is used to give the most accurate location. Obviously, the current iPhone doesn’t have GPS built-in, so using Wi-Fi and cell tower technology, Apple can estimate your location. The next iPhone is rumored to have 3G and GPS built-in, so this could become a big feature for it.

The feature can be turned on and off under the “Location Services” preference in System Preferences on an iPhone. Location is becoming a key aspect of social networking today, with up and coming sites like Yahoo! Fire Eagle, and other location-based services. The iPhone could become one of the devices that kicks-off GPS location. The iPod Touch probably won’t see this feature, simply because it doesn’t have a camera or cell tower reception.

Via [MacRumors]

MacRumors has discovered a new preference in the iPhone firmware 2.0 beta. The “Enable 3G” option allows you to turn 3G data speeds on and off - Apple claims that “Using 3G loads data faster, but decreases battery life”. Steve Jobs once said at the iPhone UK launch that the iPhone was not using 3G chips because they sucked up battery life too quickly - this could give users the option of either, when they need it most.

Although the iPhone 2.0 firmware appears to contain this 3G code, owners of current generation iPhones will not be able to take advantage of the 3G speed option without buying a new iPhone with a 3G capabilities embedded. It looks like Apple will be using similar, if not the same firmware for both 3G and 2.5G iPhones. The 3G iPhone is still expected for launch at the WWDC in June, however there is no confirmation of this from Apple themselves.

Via [MacRumors]

According to the latest iPhone firmware release, Apple is currently working on an iTunes controller for your iPhone called, you guessed it, iControl.  This application would allow you to wirelessly browse your iTunes library from a local source and stream your music and other content.  This information came from a group of strings in the latest beta release of the new iPhone software and could be one of the apps Apple will be releasing themselves when the SDK comes out.  If you’ll remember, back in July, Apple applied for a patent for this sort of thing.  That patent stated:

A portable multimedia player (such as the iPod. manufactured by Apple Computer, Inc. of Cupertino, Calif.) is used to wirelessly access and control a media server (such as a personal computer running iTunes software) that is streaming digital media by way of a wireless interface to a media unit (such as a stereo/speakers in the case of streaming digital audio).

This all sounds pretty cool to me and would be another great addition to the phone.  However, it leaves me wondering whether or not, like above, other iPods will get the same functionality.  It may be kind of hard at this point considering all iPods (besides the Touch) have yet to receive some sort of wifi connectivity.  Could this be a sneak peak of things to come?

Via [TUAW]

Apple today released Firmware Updates for the Intel iMac, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Aluminum Keyboard.

The firmware updates are available at apple.com and through Software Update. They “[fix] several issues to improve the stability of [the] computers.” The keyboard update addresses an issue with keys repeating themselves wittttttttttttthout warning.

Firmware Updates require a restart and the keyboard update renders your keyboard useless for as much as 5 minutes while it installs, then it, too, requires a restart of your computer. Follow the instructions (usually “Quit Everything, Touch Nothing") to the letter, other wise your computer may get messed up. Potentially REALLY messed up.

Oddly, I downloaded the Firmware Update for my MacBook Pro manually, as Software Update didn’t find it and it told me I didn’t need the update. Is this happening to anyone else?

The iPhone hackers just won’t take a break; it appears iPhone firmware 1.2 has been somehow found and hacked already. It has all of the features that Steve demonstrated in the iPhone SDK Roadmap event. The features you’ll notice in the video include:

• New calculator design with squared buttons
• The iTunes Wi-Fi Store is now simply called “iTunes”, and has a new icon
• Time Zone support in Calendar
• Microsoft Exchange in the new Mail accounts
• Parental controls
• Cisco VPN support

Unfortunately what is not shown is the AppStore, the major new feature that we’ll be seeing in June. This could be because the AppStore just doesn’t work from outside of Apple right now, or that if they were to launch it, the IP would be shown to Apple, and it would be a security risk.

Watch the video after the jump.

MORE »

It’s been a while since anyone has talked about the 5G iPod. But today, the 5G iPod gets a new firmware update: 1.3.  Of course, this update contains the usual “bug fixes” - that’s about all we know about the update so far - no new features have been discovered. If you have a 5G iPod, when you connect it to iTunes, you will see a message reminding you to upgrade; however the software is not on Apple’s website yet.

My guess is that these are probably minor fixes to some new iTunes features like movie rentals, possibly for future movie rentals in other parts of the world. If any of our readers have installed the update on their 5G iPod and discover anything different, please let us know by commenting.

Via [TUAW]

Apple keeps finding new features to add to the iPhone interface. The latest feature suspected to be in iPhone Firmware 2.0 is search capability. The guys at blarkKABOOM managed to find a tiny search icon on top of the Contacts list. This is purely a screenshot, so no videos indicate how the search system would work. My guess is that you would click this search button, and the standard keyboard would appear, you then type into the search field and the results appear instantly - somewhat like the way Spotlight works in Mac OS X.

I can remember last year, a whole video was made of hidden iPhone features before the iPhone was released. There’s probably many more little hints going to be found in screenshots and videos between now and July - I can’t wait for iPhone firmware 2.0.

Via [TUAW]

It seems like 1.1.3 only came out a few weeks ago, but yet another firmware update for both the iPhone and iPod Touch has been released: 1.1.4. It is not yet posted on Apple’s website, but I’m guessing this is most likely the update that contains the new long-awaited SDK from Apple. You can download the files directly here (iPhone, iPod) - or you can download it via iTunes. We will update this when the feature list of 1.1.4 is available.

If you are on a Jailbroken iPod Touch/iPhone - do not install this update just yet - it may damage your device. If you restore your device first, you should be fine installing 1.1.4.

Via [TUAW]

Apple has released yet another software update for MacBook and MacBook Pro users. ”This MacBook and MacBook Pro firmware update addresses an issue where the first key press may be ignored if the computer has been sitting idle. It also addresses some other issues.” To install this update, you’ll just need to open Software Update (if it hasn’t popped up already), and click install. Because this is a firmware update, it will install an application in your Utilities folder, which you will then need to simply run. After this your MacBook/Pro will probably restart, and everything should be working fine. Alternatively you can get the update from Apple’s downloads site.

Via [TUAW]

A user in the French MacBidouille forums claims that he was able to install a Saphire ATI Radeon 2600 card into his new Mac Pro without issues.

The card had not been tested alone, but this is very strong evidence that an unmentioned update to the Mac Pro is the ability to use any graphics card. When NVidia 8800GT card in the new Mac Pros was announced as incompatible with the earlier Mac Pros, Mac Scoop points out this could be because the card is in fact a standard card that could be used in a PC just as easily.

Before the new Mac Pros, the only way to upgrade your GPU was to buy a rare and expensive Mac-compatible card or to buy a regular card and flash it’s firmware using a PC, which could render it useless.

Read [MacScoop]