Over the past several years, Apple has arranged a one-day shopping event with reduced prices at several products, and this year is no exception. Apple invites you to this year’s one-day shopping event which, as usually, takes place the day after Thanksgiving, which is historically one of the busiest shopping days and it is this Friday, November 27th only, and several Apple Stores are said to be open at 6am on that day. The reduced prices counts also Apple Online Store as you can see below.
Apple hasn’t announced how much the prices are reduced, but Boy Genius Report has posted a supposed leak of the products that Apple will reduce the price on and it contains among other iMac ($101 off), MacBook Pro ($51-$101 off), iPod Nano ($11 off), and iPod Touch ($21-$41 off). The sale also includes Apple TV, iWork, Nike + iPod, Apple Magic Mouse and Wireless Keyboard and many other products including a lot of iPhone accessories. You can see below, what prices we can expect if Boy Genius Report has reliable sources.
Mac OS X 10.6.2 Build 10C540 has just been seeded to developers and contains several fixes, even though it arrives just one week after the otherwise most recent build. To sum it up shortly, the new Snow Leopard build fixes a pretty serious data loss issue, which was first mentioned around the 13th of October. The bug was apparently related to guest accounts, and resulted in loss of huge amounts of data.
Also, the new build contains full native support for the all new Magic Mouse as well as an Airport issue with the new iMac and VMware, which just introduced a new version with improved 3D graphics called VMware Fusion 3. Finally, the new build also contains several minor fixes, such as an Apple TV graphics improvement.
That’s all for this lunch, so go ahead and enjoy it!
According to MediaMemo, Apple has reached out to TV Networks in recent weeks, proposing a $30-a-month subscription plan to deliver content to the users from iTunes.
Last week, Apple released the Apple TV 3.0 software update which allowed contents such as iTunes LP and iTunes Extras, and the next step might be delivery of TV content via iTunes, but not a single network have yet signed on to a plan. Though Disney might be willing to sign on, since Apple CEO Steve Jobs is the largest single shareholder, and Disney were also the first to allow its content on iTunes with a huge success.
The industry executives are reportedly intrigued to the idea of an iTunes subscription plan, as they are looking for alternatives to gain revenue because advertising keeps diminishing.
Apple has today updated Apple TV to version 3.0 and redesigned the interface.
The updated features a redesigned main menu that will, according to Apple, makes navigating content simpler and faster. Besides the redesigned main menu, Apple TV now allows iTunes LP and iTunes Extras, as we wrote earlier today in New Apple TV Coming Soon and also Genius Mixes and Internet Radio is available in Apple TV 3.0.
The new software for Apple TV features a simpler and faster interface that gives you instant access to your favorite content,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of Internet Services. “HD movies and HD TV shows from iTunes have been a huge hit with Apple TV customers, and with Apple TV 3.0 they get great new features including iTunes Extras, Genius Mixes and Internet radio.”
The Apple TV update is available as a free automatic download to all Apple TV users, and so is the new iTunes 9.0.2 update, but to all users of any computers. The new iTunes 9.0.2 update adds support for the mentioned Apple TV software update 3.0, and it also adds an option for a dark background in Grid View.
Apple has today updated the ‘iTunes Store Terms and Conditions,’ which will show up the next time you’ll attempt to purchase something on iTunes Store, and yes, you have to agree. The new terms includes something rather interesting.
The new terms and conditions includes hints of a forthcoming software update to Apple TV, which will allow viewing of iTunes LP and iTunes Extras.
The Terms of Sale have been revised to clarify that you can now use iTunes LPs and iTunes Extras on Apple TV with software version 3.0 or higher.
We have earlier posted a rumor that a new Apple TV will be launched before christmas, but Phil Schiller expressed in an interview to Gizmodo prior last weeks product update, that no more Apple products will be released before christmas.
Since the beginning of September, there has been a lot of ongoing speculations on if Apple is working on enhancing Apple TV, and it was rumored to be announced at the media event, held September 9 this year, but it wasn’t even mentioned.
Earlier this month, Apple discounted the Apple TV 160GB model to $229 and the 40GB model wasn’t available anymore. This has lead to further speculations on an upcoming announcement of a new Apple TV model, and now Computerworld reports that people in the Apple TV section at Apple have been doing overtime work lately, and this could be another clue to an upcoming announcement of a new Apple TV.
With the release of iTunes 9, Apple launched a new iTunes Store with the opportunity to purchase iTunes LP and iTunes Extras. These two new features will in all probability be supported in a new major Apple TV software update.
Today it’s Thursday and it’s time for our weekly free app reviews. Each Thursday, AppleLunch will provide you with reviews of free apps from the App Store to separate the wheat from the chaff. Today, one of our editors gets embarrassed, and a tip for the lazy music lover.
Paper Toss
If you work in an office, you are probably familiar with the feeling of not doing anything. This feeling is called boredom and some brainiacs claim that boredom makes one smarter, and it has definitely made at least one guy smarter, when he suddenly got the idea of making a game for the iPhone where you shall throw a crumbled piece of paper into a small trash can and see how many times in a row you can hit it without missing. This itself seems quite easy, but when you add some different wind power from different angels, it becomes a bit more difficult. Since the game takes place in an office, the wind comes from a fan of course.
The game has 4 different levels and the harder you decide to play it, the distance to the trashcan will increase, and the paper ball will be even more influenced by the wind. Here at AppleLunch we take things seriously, and wanted to see whether Paper Toss is realistic or not. Watch the video below.
As you could see, paper toss in real life isn’t easy. The distance to the trash can though was corresponding to medium level in paper toss, so maybe our tester forgot to practice before shooting the video.
In the App, Paper Toss, you throw the crumbled piece of paper by sliding a finger in the direction you want to throw the ball. It’s easy and fun to compete against you friends in ‘how can get the best streak’ but it doesn’t come with a multiplayer version. The graphic is above what you can expect from a free application and the sounds are realistic too. On the negative side is the games’ gameplay, which is a bit uniform.
This application is officially made by Apple is available for free in iTunes App Store. This Application is exceptional and truly amazing and should be on every iPhones and iPod Touches. If you are a Mac owner you probably have an Apple Remote which has the most important features; play/pause, volume up/down, forward, backward and menu. iTunes Remote from App Store has more than just that. In fact it has everything you need.
Remote shows you album cover and looks like the iPod function
Since you have an iPhone or iPod Touch (maybe both), you’re probably familiar with the iPod function in those, and iTunes Remote works exactly like the iPod function, but with more features. To describe it, you can, from your iPhone or iPod Touch play, pause, skip, shuffle, see your songs, playlists, and album art on your device as if you sat in front of your computer and it also supports Apple TV.
If you are one of those persons who has a really big mansion and have connected speakers all over the place to your Mac, and you are in the opposite site of the house, you have no need to be worried. You don’t need to go all the way upstairs to the third floor, walk all across the hall to the room which the computer running iTunes is, and skip to the next song.
iTunes remote supports the new Genius Mix feature
All you have to do is pick up your iPhone or iPod Touch from your pocket, connect it to the same Wi-Fi is the computer and then skip song (Note: You’ll need to verify your iTunes Remote in iTunes before you can use it). This also includes regular people with regular income in regular houses or apartments.
When Apple created iTunes Remote, they were in a happy mood because it supports iTunes for Microsoft Windows too, and this is just another reason that there is no reason not to download this application.
It works fantastically and you can even play the new Genius mix on iTunes through your iTunes Remote. You can also create new playlists or if iTunes or running the “iTunes DJ” playlist, you can request songs and you can also connect your friends’ iPod Touchs and iPhones to your iTunes and let them request songs too and iTunes will automatically make a queue of requested songs.
Before the media event on Wednesday, rumors of a new Apple TV lineup appeared, but the media event didn’t cover the Apple TV at all.
Now something happens about the Apple TV, because Apple has decided to discount the Apple TV 160GB model down to $229, which previously was the price of the 40GB model and the 40GB model has been dropped from the menu and this answers the change of the shipping dates two weeks ago.
There is a lot of speculations around which is about if the new iTunes LP is formatted specifically for the Apple TV. The new iTunes Extras is cut out to be for the Apple TV so it can compete against DVD discs. This leads to speculations about a major Apple TV software update, so the Apple TV finally will support iTunes LP end iTunes Extras.
As many would have guessed, Apple is preparing its shipping schedules for new launches in the Apple Store. Among the changes is however a new speculation coming up, because Apple has changed the shipping date for Apple TV to 1 to 2 weeks. So we get a new Apple TV, right? A new lineup perhaps? Which refreshments should we expect? It’s a fairly new rumors, but also a highly probably one, so it’s difficult to tell exactly what a new Apple TV might feature.
The 1 to 2 weeks would fit the keynote schedule nicely, which is to be held the 9th of september. So if a new Apple TV is to be introduced, which upgrades and changes would follow? Rumors have indicated that iTunes and Apple’s musical software in general, will being integrating social networking services, such as Facebook and Twitter. It is likely that many products would follow up on this, and who knows… surfing on Facebook on your TV doesn’t sound too bad.
We do expect the iPod models (and iTunes?) to receive refreshments as well. One of the largest updates we are almost sure of, is a brand new camera for some of them, including the iPod Touch, iPod Nano and maybe also the iPod Classic. There may be an additional feature coming up in connection with the Apple TV or social networking services as well. If so, this is probably a software update.
And here we are! Ready for some great Apple stories, Microsoft parodies (if an Apple “Mac vs. PC” doesn’t do the job for us) and some Apple-fanatic talk, all provided by the two editors maintaining the blog, so if you really don’t have time to read our posts, then consider reading about us instead. We tend to be some pretty interesting fellows… at least now that we are preparing to catch and study the mighty Snow Leopard being released this week!
We are looking forward to working on this blog, and hope you guys will enjoying visiting it to read about the iPhone, the Mac product line, the Apple TV or even about the Apple CEO Steve Jobs or any other event, character or product worth mentioning.
