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TheAppleBlog
TheAppleBlog, published by and for the day-to-day Apple user, is a prominent source for news, reviews, walkthroughs, and real life application of all Apple products.
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Now That Rumors Have Subsided: Is a $99 iPhone Good or Bad?

Now that recent rumors of a $99 iPhone seem to have been settled — Wal-Mart will sell the 8GB model for $197 — we can get back to the broader discussion of just what an eventual $99 iPhone could mean to Apple.

I believe the answer to the question depends on just what a $99 iPhone is. Prior to the latest rumors, it was usually discussed as some sort of "iPhone nano." Maybe a flip phone, and generally acknowledged to be much more limited than the current iPhone. I’m sure these rumors will creep up again soon.
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Earn Money With Your iPhone 3G

My iPhone bleeds money. I buy apps, the bulk of which I never look at again. My monthly bill, in order to guarantee enough data available, is pretty expensive, especially when compared to what I was paying for earlier phones. And, to top it all of, I buy tons of accessories for my iPhone, spoiling it like a loving grandparent. Occasionally (not often, but occasionally), I find myself asking what my iPhone has ever done to pay me back? Yes, it’s a great tool, but I mean really pay me back, in cold, hard cash. Now, the folks at Navizon have come up with a way for you to get a little return on your investment.

Basically, Navizon adds to the basic location services of your iPhone. Your handset can determine your location using a combination of cell towers, Wi-Fi, and GPS, but using the included Maps application, you have no way of knowing which is active at any given time. Navizon displays your position (on Yahoo!, rather than Google Maps), but it also displays a little badge to let you know which method is being used to determine where you are. That way I know, for example, why the map was showing me as located three blocks North of where I actually am. The answer? My phone was only using cell tower data to find me. You can also take advantage of built-in buddy features to locate friends or family, if they’re using Navizon’s service. You can also configure alerts by logging on to the website to receive notifications by email or web when your buddies enter into specific areas you designate.
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Wal-Mart to Sell iPhones

News broke yesterday that Wal-Mart will indeed be selling Apple’s iPhone, most likely by the end of December. The source of the information is employee training materials, and employees of the U.S.-based retail giant themselves. Wal-Mart is still keeping mum about the news, having made no official statement as of yet.

Early speculation held that the 4GB iPhone would make a return, at a new, $99 price point, designed to attract frugal customers in increasingly uncertain economic times. Today’s reports, supported by a number of sources and documents, maintain that a $99 iPhone is unlikely, and that Wal-Mart will instead offer a $2 discount, selling the 8GB model for $197, including contract discount.

Analyst Andy Hargreaves of Pacific Crest Securities told Reuters that Apple, while unlikely to cut a deal that would affect its profit margins, is probably seeking distribution through Wal-Mart in order to access different market demographics. UBS analyst Maynard Um, on the other hand, thinks a Wal-Mart deal alone will not be enough to broaden the iPhone’s reach, and suggests it should instead be only a first step to even more distribution deals with large retailers.

Details remain unclear, and conflicting reports from various sources indicate that nothing is confirmed, besides the iPhone’s imminent arrival. The arrival date, for instance, is cited by Bloomberg as December 28, but by CNN Money as possibly sometime before Christmas. Likewise pricing and storage space options, with Boy Genius Reports still maintaining that the $99 4GB model is a possibility.

Apple has refused to comment on any rumors or speculation at this point.

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SoHo Printers On a Moderate Budget
Do you have small office/home office (SoHo)? Is managing your peripherals (printers, scanners, fax machines) a hassle? Well, if you are looking for a new all-in-one (AIO) printer that consolidates these peripherals into one for your SoHo, thankfully, there are many choices available for you today. Compared to the marketplace just a few years ago, you can now purchase an AIO for a relatively modest price and get some significant functionality.

Before you make the jump into consolidation of those separate devices with a new AIO printer, you might want to define some simple criteria. What is your budget? What are your needs? Do you know? Well, hopefully this article will set you down the right path. For one, let’s start with a modest budget of $300-400. Next, let’s define some functional criteria.
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MacBook Air Acting Up, Just in Time for Holidays
The launch of Apple’s new unibody aluminum Macs hasn’t been the smoothest ride, for both the company and its loyal customers. There was disappointment over what didn’t (Firewire) and what did (HDCP) make it into the new machines. The innovative new trackpad design nearly underwhelmed thanks to a glitch that resulted in it failing to recognize clicks every so often. Finally, two graphics-related issues began cropping up in MacBooks and MacBook Pros, problems which Apple is currently investigating.

Click image to see detail

Apparently, the MacBook Air was tired of its bulkier cousins getting all the negative attention. Recent reports from users indicated Apple’s ultra-portable is also experiencing problems associated with graphics output. Machines are being returned to Apple because of “laid” displays, a problem in which faint, horizontal or slightly angled gray lines appear, spanning the entire width of the notebook’s screen. Luckily (or maybe unluckily, depending on your perspective), the lines are said to appear immediately after booting, so you’ll know right away if your machine’s affected. The photo to the right shows what to look for if you’re unsure about your own Air.
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Brothers In Arms for iPhone/iPod Touch
In the course of playing and reviewing a number of iPhone games, I realize I’ve come to expect, and even allow for, certain shortcomings. I expect lag in a graphics-intensive game. I expect buggy controls that feel less than intuitive. I expect omissions that are promised to be fulfilled in later updates. All of which is why Brothers in Arms: Hour of Heroes ($9.99) caught me off guard. The new shooter from the prolific gameloft (iDP) studio is a polished, pleasurable gaming experience that lacks a lot of the usual iPhone platform caveats users have unfortunately learned to live with.

The game belongs to the Brothers in Arms franchise, which began with Gearbox Software’s 2005 title Road to Hill 30. The Brothers in Arms series is set in WWII, and console and PC versions feature first-person shooter gameplay mechanics. Hour of Heroes, developed, by gameloft, who also brought the series to the Nintendo DS, is a third-person over-the-shoulder shooter and finally escapes the single-track, limited character control found in similar games like Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.
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Multitouch Trackpad vs. Touch Screen Computing
I have some friends (mac-using friends) who are gaga over some of the new commercials they’ve seen of touch screen Windows-capable machines — namely the HP TouchSmart PCs. On one level I understand — that stuff looks cool! But I quickly come back and think, realistically how useful is this? When I pointed this out to my lovely wife, her retort was along the lines of, “Don’t you still dream about having that computer from Minority Report?” Touche. But in the real world (as opposed to what Hollywood likes to portray) as computers and monitors exist now, is this really what we want? Appease me while I argue a skosh. (Feel free to get involved in the comments!)

I’m one of those, along with many I know, that prefer people to keep their fingers off my screen when pointing to or talking about something on my computer. I hate smears. Multiply this times n when a glossy screen is present — which of course is always now with the new MacBook lineup. (Has anyone else noticed that the glossy coating on the new MacBooks is even more of a magnet for smudges than the old?!)
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Setting Up Xcode & Beanstalk Hosted Subversion
If you are planning on getting started in developing for the Mac, one of the first things I recommend setting up is a version control system. Beanstalk is a hosted Subversion system, so you can access your code from anywhere you have an Internet connection, team up with partners across the world, and keep a safe copy of your code off site, just in case. It’s tempting to rely on Time Machine for the ability to roll back changes, but Subversion has some key differences that make it a clear winner in ease of use and features.

For one, you can host a Subversion repository anywhere, either locally on your own Mac, or on the Internet, or on your local private network. Second, Subversion is built to work with multiple users, and can handle conflicting commits to the repository. Finally, Subversion can integrated directly into Xcode, which is what we are going to look at here.
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Channel Your Inner Ancient Riverboat Gambler with MotionX Poker Quest

My attention span when it comes to gaming, and especially mobile gaming, is not very long. Most titles on my iPhone never get a second play, in fact. Hence my surprise when I spent many hours over the past few days on MotionX’s newest title, Poker Quest.

MotionX is the developer behind MotionX Poker, one of the most talked about and impressive early titles for the iPhone and iPod touch. The dice poker game features an incredibly well-rendered virtual dice simulator, with realistic physics. MotionX has since released Dice, a free version of the dice simulation without the Poker game features, and GPS Lite, a tracking and navigation app.
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The Dark Knight: Batmobile Game for iPhone

This week, Glu Mobile's latest game The Dark Knight: Batmobile Game for iPhone went live on the App Store. In the game, players get to direct the Batmobile through a difficult street path filled with twists and turns as well as jump sequences with the goal of getting Batman to Gotham City as quickly as possible. The game uses the iPhone accelerometer to further excite playability as well as 3D graphics for an enhanced visual experience.

The Dark Knight: Batmobile Game

Players experience the power behind the 2.5 ton Batmobile as they drive it through a series of high-powered jump sequences to get Batman through the streets of Gotham City as quickly as possible. Unlike a typical racing game, you don’t actually ’steer’ the vehicle, but use the iPhone to apply speed boosts, fire the weapon (on a limited basis), and align the Batmobile correctly when performing a jump. This does make it very easy to pick up and play, but after a few plays you may find the gameplay a little limited.

There are some impressive graphics, and the game re-creates the eerie feel of Gotham City well. Likewise, the Batmobile bears an excellent resemblance to the model featured in the film.
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Marry Address Book With Google Maps

Apple’s Address Book is a clean and concise way to manage all of your contacts. It does what it needs without a bunch of frills, and for the most part, that’s a good thing. My use of Address Book is fairly infrequent — and by infrequent I mean that it’s pretty much only utilized around this time of year when I have to send out the annual newsletter or photo card of the kids.

Recently when my younger sister moved into the Big City and sent her ritzy new Manhattan address around to all of us, I entered it into Address Book like a good boy, and promptly forgot about it. It wasn’t long after that my lovely wife wanted to know about the new City digs, but I didn’t know a whole lot. So being a good nerd, I copied the address from Address Book and then copied it into a Google Maps session in Firefox to see what the area looked like. That’s when it hit me — why should I have to go through such a process?!
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Printer Review: Epson Artisan 800
At the $300 price point, the Epson Artisan 800 is a very nice all-in-one (AIO) printer. For most small office/home office users (SoHo’s), it could easily meet their needs. It is very small (18.4″ x 23.0″ x 7.8″) compared to most of the printers in this price range and offers both wireless as well as wired networking.

Next, it has an amazing 7″ touch screen for easy operation of the AIO. This is probably the most impressive feature of the printer and definitely adds to the sexiness factor. Another bonus is that the printer comes with an extra black cartridge. This was a pleasant surprise during the out-of-box-experience.

The Automatic Document Feeder (ADF) holds up to 30 pages, although it does not support duplex copying or scanning. If you are not copying or scanning two-sided documents, then this should not be an issue for you. For most folks, that will probably be the case.
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Printer Review: Canon Pixma MX7600
At the $400 price point, the Canon Pixma MX7600 is a beautiful all-in-one (AIO) printer. For most small office/home office users (SoHo’s), it could easily meet their needs. It is moderate in size (21.0″ x 19.7″ x 10.1″) and includes wired networking.

Full disclosure: I have owned two other Canon printers (a MultiPASS MP390 and a Pixma MP970) and they both have been exceptional in terms of print quality as well as being made like tanks.

One of the novel features of this device is the way in which it puts the ink to the paper. Initially, the Pixma 7600 lays down a layer of clear ink and then begins to add the respective colors. Honestly, this seemed like a marketing gimmick, until I viewed the print quality.
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Wirelessly Sync Google Calendar With Your iPhone

I live and die by my Google calendar and have always hated the fact that I could not wirelessly sync it with my iPhone. I’ve tried every method in the book, and finally have found two methods to wirelessly sync your Google calendar to your iPhone.

NuevaSync

The first method is free and uses a service called NuevaSync. NuevaSync allows over the air synchronization to the built in iPhone calendar. It seems like a great service, but I could never get it to work because it requires the iPhone Exchange account to work (you are only allowed to have one Exchange account per phone and mine is used for work email). My roomate has successfully set it up on his phone and he reports that it works well. NuevaSync does not require the user to install any third party software, but does require the user to create an account on the NuevaSync website (security risks?). Instructions for configuring NuevaSync can be found here.
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Boxee Adds Netflix Support

Today, boxee is releasing their latest alpha build for the flexible media player. The big news for this release is the tantalizing Netflix support and new custom interfaces for various channels like Hulu, CNN, Flickr, Picasa, and YouTube. There are a few new content sources as well.

Netflix takes center stage for this release at the request of users. The boxee team ran a survey just two weeks ago and the results put Netflix out in front as the most requested new addition to the media center app. The initial implementation for the desktop seems to be pretty complete even at this early stage. You can browse content available in Netflix’s “Watch Instantly” category, add items to your Instant Queue, and play the streaming content. Here’s a couple shots to tide you over until you can download and install for yourself.
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Top App Store Downloads for 2008 Paint a Picture of Buying Habits
It may not be a list with many surprises, but the official top App Store downloads of 2008 still makes for interesting reading. Posted by Apple early this morning and available to view in iTunes, the list of chart-toppers is divided into most downloaded overall, and features top ten lists for five of the App Store’s categories: Games, Entertainment, Utilities, Social Networking and Music.

The lists appear as part of the iTunes Store 2008 year-in-review mini-site, which also features the most popular movies, songs, TV shows, and podcasts. Of course, the items on each list differ according to which region you’re in. The list discussed here is that found in the U.S. version.
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Apple Premium In-Ear Headphones Soon to Be in Your Ears
It seems like only yesterday that articles were popping up around the web talking about the unavailability of Apple’s new Premium In-Ear Headphones with Mic and Remote due to the product being redesigned. Wait, it was only yesterday. Well, that was then, and this is now, and the headphones are now available at the Apple Store website, albeit with a shipping time of 7-10 days.

Originally announced at the “Let’s Rock” iPod even in September, and slated for an October ship date, the in-ear headphones are priced at $79. They’re meant to compete with high-end, audiophile-targeted devices from industry leaders like Bose and Shure, but according to some sources, they weren’t achieving that lofty standard, which lead to the extended delay.
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