A recently uncovered patent, filed by Apple in February, reveals that they may be working on a wearable display that can simulate the experience of being in a virtual environment with the help of intelligent sensors. Apparently, these sensors will be able to detect movements of the head and even the eye, adapting the video accordingly to make the wearer feel like he’s actually in a real environment.
Of course, it is entirely possible (and highly probable) that, like most Apple patents, this idea will never actually see the light of day. The invention of this idea has been credited in part to Tony Fadell, the father of the iPod and, up until recently, Apple’s senior vice president of the iPod division.
Although not quite as sophisticated as the patent suggests, wearable displays have existed for quite a while now (the Myvu and iWear series are good examples) but all of them offer too little for too much. The display resolution is low, the designs awkward, and the prices sky high.
I really love the concept though and if Apple were to make such a device, I would be first in line to lay my hands on one of these things. What do you think?
[Via Electronista]
Although Apple made it abundantly clear that there would be no new products before January 2009, the Apple Online Store has just been taken down and that familiar yellow note heralds its closed virtual doors. And it’s a Tuesday today.
There is a very good chance that this is just regular maintenance stuff, although we haven’t seen that happen in a long time, but when the Apple Store closes shop on a Tuesday, our speculation meters start tingling with anticipation. Maybe they’ll use this downtime to make those In-Ear Headphones available for sale. Let us know what you think.
In a posting over at Gizmodo, Matt Buchanan reports that, according to NVIDIA, the two graphics chips used in the new MacBook Pros, the integrated 9400M and dedicated 9600M GT, are quite capable of running together in an SLI setup, a feature that the MacBook Pros do not offer.
Furthermore, NVIDIA claims that the limitation of having to log out and back in to switch between the two GPUs exists only on the software level and, by default, the graphics cards are capable of allowing the user to switch between them on the fly. Also, these new chips can theoretically support up to 8GB of RAM.
If true, and we have no reason to doubt their authenticity, these are quite interesting tidbits of information that hint, yet again, at the possibility that Apple has put in place artificial limitations via software on which features of the hardware can be utilized.
Although I can see the rationale behind not allowing simultaneous use of the two graphics processors, given how battery intensive each one of them individually is, I fail to see why Apple wouldn’t figure out a way to allow users to switch between the two GPUs on the fly, perhaps even automatically based on when the notebook is on battery power and when it is plugged in.
I imagine that it must be quite a hassle to have to stop everything you’re doing and log out if you ever want to switch between them. In all likelihood, given the fact that I only ever reboot my Mac when software updates require me to, I would never even utilize the second card due to this cumbersome requirement. Therefore, it is surprising that Apple, especially Apple, didn’t make the process easier even though it was technically possible.
Also, if the GPUs support up to 8GB of RAM, why is the maximum capacity of the Mac notebooks still stuck at 4GB? I was hoping it would be bumped up to at least 6GB. MacBook Pro buyers, in particular, can use all the speed and performance they can get.
Since all the required hardware is already in place, maybe Apple will eventually bless us with a software update that will enable some or all of these features, huh? What say you, dear readers?
Yukari Iwatani Kane, writing for The Wall Street Journal, brings us word that Apple is hiring Joel Podolny, the Dean of Yale University’s Business School, to serve as the Vice President and Dean of Apple University.
Yes, you read that right and no, it isn’t the first of April. Apparently, there’s an Apple University in the works. Much like the iTunes Store, which served as a vehicle to move more iPods, maybe Apple has gotten tired of going after the education market in order to sell Macs to students and now plans to do some homeschooling of its own, so to speak.
Or, perhaps more logically, they’re taking a cue from Pixar University, which is a program that Pixar offers to new and existing animators on the company’s payroll to brush up on their skills. I can almost picture it: a huge room equipped with a conveyor belt dishing out stacks of black mock turtlenecks, with thousands of kids milling about in the familiar uniform.
Whatever the case, I think it’s safe to assume that Steve Jobs has found an innovative way to prepare a successor for himself—start from childhood, train him to live life exactly like the Apple CEO and mould him into his own image. My, who’d have thunk it?
Disclaimer: 90% of this post is pure speculation and views expressed by the author of this piece are entirely his own. We’re not even sure how this thing got published. Rest assured that at least the first paragraph is actual, real news.
[Via Daring Fireball]
According to a report by JRPG analyst Lisa Thompson, Apple is "believed" to be negotiating with British mobile operator O2 to sell a subsidized laptop in the United Kingdom (you can find a full PDF of the report here). The idea, apparently, is that if you sign up with O2 as a, say, a two-year subscriber, and buy an iPhone 3G (operating it on the O2 network), then you'd get a Mac at a subsidized price--most probably the cheapest model out there, the low-end MacBook, whose price recently dropped to $1000.
While it is true that Apple has already conducted similar deals with Canadian telco Aliant, that's not a 3G deal, it's basically a monthly fee to cover the cost of the computer and the Internet access over three years. That's not really the same thing as what other UK operators like Vodafone are doing: selling a stripped-down netbook with a 3G connection.
Given that Apple already doesn't officially allow iPhone 3G tethering, it seems highly unlikely that Apple would pull something like this, even in the UK. Further, O2 has previously denied similar rumors.
I could see a deal where Apple drops the price by, say, 5 percent--à la the education discount--but not something on the scale of what O2's rivals in the UK are already doing.
With Apple’s hootenanny in Cupertino just a day away, the fact that Apple is releasing new laptops has officially become the worst secret ever kept. Even Apple’s gotten into the fun, accidentally leaking a support PDF for the “MacBook/MacBook Pro (Late 2008).”
The document in question, which has since been removed, doesn’t have many details to spill about the new models, focusing only on what it takes to replace the display on the computers, including reinstalling the AirPort card (News flash! New MacBooks will have wireless networking!).
But this all seems kind of…suspicious, doesn’t it? I mean, it’s almost too easy. An invitation spelling it out? A leaked support document? Photos all over the Interweb, purporting to be of the new aluminum case design? There’s only one possible answer.
My theory? Steve Jobs has gone full-on evil supervillain. Tired of the endless speculation about his health, Steve’s been spending the last several months quietly retrofitting Apple’s Town Hall so that it boasts a retractable floor that can slide away at a moment’s notice, dumping the assembled crowd of press and analysts into a swimming pool populated with piranhas and laser-toting cyborg seals.
It’s times like this that I’m glad I couldn’t scrape together the airfare.
And This Was The Turning Point
Let’s lead off with the big news of the week. Now, this is HUGE, people. It has the potential to crack the desktop computer market wide open for the Mac. You know what the Macalope’s talking about. That’s right, Swedish Foreign Minister Carl “the Build” Bildt has converted to the Mac.
Carl, as you know, is not so much a trend setter as a trend maker in Sweden, so it’s just a matter of time before the Mac OS startup bong is heard echoing through the fjords. And you know the old saying: as goes Scandinavia, so goes the world.
You haven’t heard that? Oh.
Continue reading "The Macalope Weekly: The Build, the Brick and the Dock"
Despite the fact that Steve Jobs and other Apple execs like to refer to the Apple TV as a “hobby,” that’s always struck me as a rather inaccurate term. A hobby, after all, is something that you pursue out of passionate interest—two words you’d be hard-pressed to use in Apple’s attitude towards the little set-top box. Then again, I suppose referring to it as “a desperate attempt to extend their presence into the living room video market” is a bit wordy.
The Apple TV is, to my mind, Apple’s beachhead in TV-based entertainment. They want consumers to be aware that there is a living room component to the their media strategy, even if it’s not fully developed yet. However, having established that foothold, Apple’s still made only a small effort to expand their presence further. By all accounts, Apple TV Take Two, introduced at Macworld this year, is an improvement on the first iteration, offering movie rentals, a refined interface, and other major features. But what Take Two says to me most importantly, is that Apple TV Take Three is inevitable.
Silicon Alley Insider’s Dan Frommer clearly thinks this is the case too, but in his mind, this requires a hardware update.
Apple’s first step should be to throw a disc reader in there and make it a high-end DVD player replacement, something people will still need/use for years, for $199 or less. Then, get a good deal from Sony (SNE) to offer a premium Blu-ray edition for cheap — $399 tops; ideally $299 or less. And now you have a much, much bigger potential market than if Apple TV were just an iTunes player.
I’ve long stood by the idea that Apple envisions the Apple TV as a gateway to the future of television-based entertainment, whereas incorporating a physical media reader would be a concession to the past. But given the apparently low adoption rates of the Apple TV, there is some merit in Frommer’s argument that what the Apple TV needs is a kick in the pants from the outside world.
Continue reading "Apple TV Take Two and call me in the morning"
