World of Apple

Towards the end of last year Apple filed a trademark on the phrase “Mac Pro” at the New Zealand Intellectual Property Office.

The filing dated November 18 2005 desscribes the phrase “Mac Pro” as “computers; computer hardware; computer software; computer peripherals; notebook computers; laptop computers; tablet computers; computer servers; handheld computers; mobile computers; hard drives; audio speakers; speakers for computers; radios; cameras; video cameras; telephones; mobile telephones; personal digital assistants; electronic organizers; electronic notepads; magnetic data carriers; telephones; mobile phones; computer gaming machines; microprocessors; memories boards; monitors; displays; keyboards; computer input devices; computer cables; modems; printers; parts and accessories for all the aforesaid goods.”

An analyst has predicted that he expects Apple to EOL the iPod shuffle in favour of a 1GB iPod nano.

The analyst has also shed some light on the availability of NAND flash memory;

“Our latest checks do pick some modest loosening of demand in NAND flash within the supply chain that could indicate a slightly more seasonal impact than our very optimistic expectations from only a few weeks ago,”

Rumours have arisen after Bono unveiled a new project to help fight AIDs called Product Red. The charity hopes to raise money to help finance the fight against AIDs, TB and Malaria.

Apparently Bono has been putting pressure on Apple to release a red iPod and according to some tipsters Bono was overheard saying “a new charity red Amex card and red iPod”.

Apple has naturally declined to comment.

As has been long time rumoured AppleInsider have once again reiterated that they expect Apple to release a new Intel iBook (likely to be called MacBook) with a 13.3″ wide-screen display, incorporating a built-in iSight and coming bundled with Front Row and Apple Remote.

They have noted that they expect the MacBooks to ship with the same design as current iBooks and WILL retain FireWire connections, they also expect the 13.3″ model to replace both the 12″ and 14″ models, the new models are expected in the 2nd quarter of the year.

MacsimiumNews has posted a detailed report on a new patent that has been filed by Apple which shows the use of an accelerometer in a tablet computer.

An accelerometer is a very similar technology to that used in the PowerBooks but is known as a Sudden Motion Sensor.

The patents appears to point towards the following possible uses;

• using the movement of the device to trigger what type of content is displayed on the device
• detect whether the device is moving
• movement as a form of security

  Its a great article summing up the patent beautifully.

It looks like Cingular is preparing to do an advertising blitz with the brand new Moto SLVR L7. We’re pretty sure this is real anyway.

AppleInsider has reported that Apple had plans to introduce iPod related products at MacWorld but for an unknown reason they did not. The report offers no details on what the product was but expects an announcement soon.

This goes hand in hand with another rumour of Macs being chopped from the Keynote.

AppleInsider is reporting that from March Apple will no longer sell its Final Cut products, such as Soundtrack, Final Cut Pro, DVD Studio Pro and others as stand alone products but will instead only be selling the Final Cut Studio which encompasses them all.

Naturally all these applications will be Universal and as Steve said himself users with the current versions who wish to grab hold of the Universal versions can pay $49 for the cross grade.

Although this doesn’t seem true for Aperture as Apple have posted the following on their website;

“A Universal version of Aperture, which will run natively on both PowerPC- and Intel-based Mac computers, will be available before the end of March 2006. New and existing owners of Aperture will be able to crossgrade to the Universal version at no additional charge via Software Update.”

AppleInsider has pulled up a Patent filing from September 2002 which seems to represent a failed attempt or a future product from Apple.

The patent is a mouse design with a rotary dial; “The rotary dial is configured to provide a control function (or functions) for performing an action (or actions) on a display screen. […] The control function may be widely varied. For example, the control function may be used to control various applications associated with the computer system to which the mouse is connected.”

Could be very effective for use in Final Cut Pro, acting like a freewheel to control the timeline.

It appears that either an accidentally released update to iTunes that was pulled or an update to the Airport Express Base Station which is not widely known has brought in a new feature.

Some readers on World of Apple have notified us to a new feature which seems to enable the selection of multiple speakers within iTunes.

Also ratifying this the Airport Express page has been recently updated to say:

AirTunes: Your Music Unwired
AirPort Express with AirTunes extends your wireless world even beyond access to the Internet and your home network. It brings your iTunes music to virtually any room in your house, or several rooms at once, if you like.