In October this year, along with new iMacs, Apple introduced Magic Mouse, the world’s first mouse with a multi- touch surface, like the one you see on iPhones and MacBooks. Magic Mouse’s predecessor, Mighty Mouse, never became any success and many have complained about the scroll ball, but Magic Mouse is completely different, and after just 8 weeks on the market, it has captured over 10 pct. market share, and Apple is now the third best selling mouse manufacturer, behind Microsoft and Logitech.
Though Apple is in third place, their superiors on the mouse market are far ahead, and Apple will by no chance catch up with them as yet, but Apple has felt the demand on Magic Mouse and here at AppleLunch we have actually experienced that it was impossible to purchase Magic Mouse anywhere in Aarhus, Denmark. Premium Reseller “humac” told that they haven’t had any Magic Mouses since November, and were not expecting to have any before late January, so if you want a Magic Mouse, and you live outside America, we recommend you to buy it from Apple Online Store.
Apple Senior Vice President, Phil Schiller, expressed in an interview to Gizmodo prior to last weeks product updates, that the company has completed their lineup for the holiday season, and that no more products will be released this year.
This time we got official word in the last one-on-one media briefing from Apple, in which they told Brian about the new iMac 27, the new Unibody MacBook, and new Magic Mouse. We were talking casually about about it, and he mentioned something that Phil Schiller told him: There are not going to be any new Apple products this year. Yes, that’s what my favorite Apple VP said. No más cosas de la manzana, ¿comprende?
Anyhow, after gizmodo released their article, they got contacted by Apple, who told that “the actual quote is “The holiday lineup is set,”” and whatever that means is until now, just a clue. As far as we know, the Holiday Season is at the end of everyones calendar, but still there is a few days between Christmas and New Years Evening, and maybe we will see a new Apple product in that period?
Yesterday we provided you with a rumor on a MacBook Pro update, and earlier today we wrote about the rumored Apple tablet, so maybe one of those products will be announced and/or released somewhere between Christmas and New Years Evening?
The Apple Online Store has been closed for some time with the famous note: “We’ll be back soon,” but now Apple’s Hot News has revealed information about new products. As you could read earlier today, rumors have risen about upcoming Apple products, including redesigned iMacs, new polycarbonate MacBooks and Mac Minis, and those rumors are now clarified.
Apple has today announced the following:
New iMacs
New redesigned polycarbonate MacBooks
New Mac Minis
New Apple Keyboards and Mouses
The new mouses are dubbed “Magic Mouse,” and it has been rumored for quite some time, that Apple was about to release new products, including a new mouse. Specially the iMac and MacBook has been mentioned, and appeared as a rumor more than one month ago, while evidence kept coming, but now the waiting time is over, and we can all enjoy our lunches with new apples. Stay tuned for more information on the new products.
It’s been in the air for quite some time that Apple is planning updates for many of their stationary Macs and their MacBook, and the waiting may soon be over. Rumors have risen to the surface of hardware releases this week, and though none of them have been confirmed, much indicate high reliability. The products which have been most discussed and noted in previous rumors, are the iMac, Mac Mini and MacBook. The MacBook should come in a fresh plastic design and the iMac should generally just get a facelift, but it’s still interesting to see what kind of facelift. The future of the Mac Mini has been very difficult to predict for analysts, as it first appeared Apple would discontinue the product, yet rumors have indicated updates on it ever since last year.
And what about that plastic remote? Will it remain plastic and will it perhaps receive a multi-touch screen as the iPhone and iPod Touch? Those are rumors which have circulated for some time, and it definitely would make sense for Apple to update the device, so we’re are very excited about the current week… if Apple is in fact going to release new products, nothing is sure yet. However, the trend is to announce updates on Tuesdays, so well… If it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen soon.
Lately, their has been rumored new Apple products to be released very soon. These rumors shows to be reliable, because some has now spotted Google ads, showing new Apple products are on its way to the market.
It is the Dutch Google Ad Sense ad, that has revealed the existence of “an ultra thin 20 & 24 inch model” of iMac, a “thinner, lighter and faster” MacBook and a “faster and more affordable than ever” Mac Mini, priced €100 lower than the current!
Furthermore a new wireless Apple keyboard and a new wireless Apple Mouse has also been rumored, but the Dutch Google Ad-Sense ad didn’t mention some of those two, nor has any announcement been made yet on a release date for the new products, but we, here at AppleLunch, are expecting to see an announcement from Apple in the coming week.
Another clue has just appeared to a nearly product upgrade on the desktop based Macs. This week, Apple has informed its direct sales channels, that iMac and Mac Mini has entered a period of constraint, but without any official reason.
Earlier we published a story about a new iMac lineup coming up this week, but now according to AppleInsider, new Mac Minis will be announced too, before the holiday season.
For instance, Amazon.com, one of the company’s largest authorized Mac dealers, ran out of all four iMac configurations and both Mac mini configurations earlier this month and has shown no signs that a restocking is in order.
This indicates that new desktop based Macs will arrive very soon, but that’s not all because rumors keeps appearing that a new polycarbonate MacBook will come out to the stores too in the near future. We will all look forward and hopefully see a whole new lineup on different Apple products.
Rumors keeps appearing about a new MacBook line. Latest, it’s about a new affordable MacBook line that is being rumored to be announced soon for release before the holiday season alongside a whole new iMac family, which we wrote about two days ago.
The new MacBook line will in all probability be a redesigned version of the low-cost polycarbonate MacBooks and it’s expected to be priced lower than $999. Last time the white MacBook got a facelift was in May this year, but apparently Apple has decided to upgrade the MacBook further.
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.
An entirely new iMac design and several minor MacBook improvements… That’s what an analyst from Wedge Partners claims Apple is planning for. And not only does the report believe in these updates, but also that they will arrive within just weeks from now. The source is confident that the iMac will be announced in a much cleaner and thinner design with more rounded corners. The MacBook will also receive design updates, but those are likely to be limited. However, both models should also have improved hardware specifications and Wedge Partners believe that they will be priced lower than currently, though not before 2010 – some time after the new models have been launched.
We are not sure how reliable the source is, but Apple has updated some of their Mac models at this time of the year before, so it is likely that they follow the same strategy and introduce new updates annually up to December to hit the Christmas sales. So let us hope for that, and enjoy your lunch!
We have mentioned it before when we made a review of iChat in Snow Leopard and it’s worth mentioning again a couple of times. Our all time favorite duck is without any doubt Donald Duck and the question of who gets in secondly is close between Daffy Duck and the Adium icon, but besides the icon, what makes Adium so good? We decided to find out.
The ultimate instant messaging client
Adium is a free instant messaging client, built for Mac OS X. It all started with an idea from a college student called Adam Iser and this idea about an instant messaging client for Mac, which in the beginning only supported AIM, grew larger every day and today there is a team of developers, writing on Adium to improve the users’ impressions of the application.
Today Adium is maybe the most popular instant messaging client for Mac and the reason it has gotten so far is because it supports almost every protocol available including MSN, ICQ,
MobileMe, Yahoo! Messenger, Bonjour, Skype, Twitter, Facebook and of course AOL Instant Messenger.
Adium supports nearly all IM protocols
With all these protocols Adium supports, it’s close to being the ultimate instant messaging client.
Plugin is a solution
Adium isn’t the only multi-protocol supporting application available, but what makes it better than its competitors is all the options you have available. If there is something you think is missing in Adium to be better than other clients, you can in all probability find it in their plugin directory, called ‘Xtras’. In this section you can find whatever you need from animated dock icons (me myself have Pixar’s For the Birds icon) to Chuck Norris Random Fact generator. If you want, it s also possible to recreate Adium to be “The Simpsons fan’s instant messaging client” by downloading first the dock icon and afterwards The Simpsons soundset. Then a “Do’h” happens every time a friend comes online and you can have yourself a laugh about that. Plugins give you the opportunity to customize Adium to become exactly the instant messaging client you want, and you can actually install a plugin that makes it possible to use Adium as a client for Skype. Adium has a built-in plugin manager which they call ‘Xtras Manager’ and it shows you all the plugins that you have downloaded and of course you can delete them too, if you’ve downloaded something that appears to be something that you didn’t want, and there’s also a shortcut to the site where you can find additional Xtras (plugins) for your Adium.
Unfortunately Adium doesn’t have its own notification system, but it supports Growl, which you can set up and get notifications when your contacts or buddies comes online. Alternatively you can get the dock icon to jump, when certain contacts appear online.
It isn’t perfect yet
Though Adium is, according to what is mentioned earlier in this review, the ultimate instant messaging client, it still has shortcomings. Every MacBook and MacBook Pro have built-in iSight cameras and Adium hasn’t managed to utilize those yet. In other words; Adium doesn’t support video nor voice chat, and that’s probably the reason why most Messenger users prefer ‘Microsoft Messenger for Mac’ to Adium.
The total impression of Adium is still positive and we’ll gladly recommend this application to every Mac user who wants to use Messenger and don’t care if he or she can video chat or not.
In October this year, along with new iMacs, Apple introduced Magic Mouse, the world’s first mouse with a multi- touch surface, like the one you see on iPhones and MacBooks. Magic Mouse’s predecessor, Mighty Mouse, never became any success and many have complained about the scroll ball, but Magic Mouse is completely different, and after just 8 weeks on the market, it has captured over 10 pct. market share, and Apple is now the third best selling mouse manufacturer, behind Microsoft and Logitech.
