Apple Day – Apple, iPod, iPad, iPhone, iTouch, iMac, iBook

An anonymous reader writes “Apple is looking to patent a process that will save customers the hassle of waiting to order a cup of coffee at a local Starbucks. Even better: The technology would let you jump the line of those ordering in person. ‘Customers might tap a button to order their favorite drink, say a double-shot mocha, as they stroll up to the nearest coffee shop. When the drink is ready go to, the device–such as an iPhone–would chime or blink to let the thirsty one know it’s time to scoop up the order at the counter. The patent puts Apple’s partnership with Starbucks in a new light. The technology promises to morph Apple from the business of simply selling gadgets and music and movies that can be played on those devices into an intermediary in all kinds of exchanges.'”

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An anonymous reader writes “The Apple iMac is probably the standard all-in-one desktop computer. Great operating system, built-in software and design around solid, but pretty normal, hardware guts. According to Walter Mossberg, there’s a new kid in town that not only matches it but is ‘sightly ahead’: the Dell XPS One. His latest review is already causing the usual suspects to weigh in. Mossberg says it is a better machine, but Vista and its built-in software make it inferior than Apple iMac’s Leopard and iLife suite. Would you choose the better hardware of the Dell XPS One -which is more expensive- or the elegant design and software of the Apple iMac?”

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Apple and News Corp.’s 20th Century Fox film studio have signed a deal for digital movie rentals. Consumers will be able to rent the latest Fox DVD releases from iTunes for a limited time.

Shares of Apple hit an all-time high today, briefly trading over $200 per share on NASDAQ. At such levels, Apple sports a market value of nearly $170 billion, making the company nearly 3x the size of Dell, and closing in on one-half the size of Microsoft.

Being the romantic fellow that he is, Claude spent what must have been numerous hours producing a video proposal in the style of those ubiquitous commercials — as you can see after the break — and then screened it for his sweetheart (probably on his or her you-know-what) while they were strolling around the area where they’d first met in college.

Axiotron, the California company who promised us a Mac-based tablet way back in January, is finally about to ship its ModBook this January.

In looking back at 2007, CNet views the smash entrance of Google and Apple onto the telecom stage as a major formative factor for 2008’s tech scene. Google in particular is going to be a huge factor in the much-anticipated wireless auction. “Google was instrumental in getting the FCC to adopt auction rules that would ultimately give consumers more choice in the devices they use on these new networks. And in November, Google CEO Eric Schmidt committed the company to bidding in the auction, promising to spend at least $4.6 billion on licenses. Exactly what Google plans to do with the spectrum if it wins licenses is still unknown. But its participation raises the stakes, especially for traditional telephony players.”

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Is Steve jobs turning into an overprotective nanny in his old age? As Apple continues its attempt at world domination through well-designed products and heavy advertising, it’s good to know that the company is looking out for our eardrums. Your next iPod could calculate how long you’ve been listening to music at high volume, and reduce the volume.

This one should be a real iPod special-edition

White boy can dance.

psx4iPhone – was just released. It has been in private beta for a little while now, but now its first public release, at Version 0.1.0.Iphone4world.com

Can any wallpaper be beat Homer? No.

An anonymous reader sends us to The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs for a developing situation. Daniel Lyons, a.k.a. Fake Steve Jobs, made a post earlier today revealing that Apple was offering him some money (in the wake of the ThinkSecret shutdown) to close down his blog. He said he was interested in taking it. A few hours later, Lyons posted again revealing that Apple’s lawyers had contacted him angrily, saying the details of the deal were supposed to remain private. Fake Steve replied ‘we either deal out in the open, completely transparently, or we don’t deal.’ A third post gives details of Apple’s lawyers’ next response, going totally medieval on him. Since then the situation has calmed down a bit.

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FSJ has been ordered to cease and desist by Apple lawyers just days before christmas! FSJ’s assets are at risk- Save FSJ!

Somewhere between 2006 and today, I stopped considering Apple an underdog. And I’m not just talking about their iPod numbers nor am I talking about their no-where-close to Windows marketshare. I mean, screw marketshare, really: Does Porsche outsell Honda?