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

Can you imagine a world before the iPhone? It’s difficult, isn’t it? But there was a time earlier in the year when instead of reviewing the iPhone, we were making predictions about it.

If a new iPhone or iPod touch found its way under your tree and you just can’t wait until Apple officially supports third-party application development to extend its functionality , it’s time you jailbreak your favorite new portable device.

Steve Jobs wants to patent a process that will save customers the hassle of waiting to order a cup of coffee at a local Starbucks or a fresh burger at the nearest fast food restaurant. Even better: The technology would let you jump the line of those ordering in person

Developers have received their first pre-release build of the Mac OS X 10.5.2 updater, and it’s a biggie. Weighing in at over 350M, the wide-ranging update affects many different visible and under-the-hood aspects of Leopard’s operation.

mudimba writes “Apple and Twentieth Century Fox are about to announce a deal that will allow users to rent Fox movies over iTunes. The deal will allow people to download movies that will only play for a limited amount of time. ‘Pali Research analyst Stacey Widlitz said the deal follows a trend of Hollywood studios selling directly to consumers and cutting out the middleman. “It’s just a sign the studios feel … that another distribution channel is where they are choosing to go, and incrementally it hurts Blockbuster and Netflix,” Widlitz said.'”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

If a new iPhone or iPod touch found its way under your tree and you just can’t wait until Apple officially supports third-party application development to extend its functionality (who can wait until February?), it’s time you jailbreak your favorite new portable device.

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.'”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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?”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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