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Apple Magic Trackpad Features, Cost, Pictures & Specifications

conturix — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 23:58:11 +0000

Apple quietly released a brand new input device to go along with their line of desktop products, the Magic Trackpad. Its a large touch surface that resembles the trackpads on Apple’s MacBooks, is a standalone device that works wirelessly over Bluetooth. It has a glass surface (same as the one on the current MacBooks) and supports multi-touch gestures. With the launch of this new device, Apple’s multi-touch gestures can be enjoyed on any Mac computer. Here are some pictures.

A few things about the new Magic Trackpad that are noteworthy -

The trackpad has rubber feet which prevents it from skidding on your desk.
From the design, though a button seems impossible, but Apple managed to put buttons beneath the rubber feet, so that the whole trackpad acts as a button, you can apply pressure anywhere to click.
The trackpad has an aluminium design, similar to Apple’s wireless keyboard, and is almost dimensionally similar to it too, so that they look like a part of a set together. If you already own an Apple wireless keyboard, then this new device will go great with it.
The cylindrical compartment at the back of the trackpad (as seen in above pictures) is a container for the 2 AA batteries which power the trackpad. Apple claims that the trackpad has inbuilt energy saving features, and that a single charge is enough to last for ‘months’.
To get the Magic Trackpad to work with your iMac, you’ll need the Magic Trackpad and Multi-Touch Trackpad Update, available via Software Update, for using the multi-touch gestures.

The Magic Trackpad is priced at USD 69 and is available at the Apple online store.

Apple’s Magic Trackpad

Apple Magic Trackpad Features, Cost, Pictures & Specifications is a post from Technix Update

Read The Original Here:TechnixUpdate

Airtel iPhone 4 In India To Be Available September or October

conturix — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 17:58:10 +0000

A good news for all the iPhone lovers in our country (though this number is very less). You will have to wait for few more months more to lay you hands on iPhone 4 as the releasing date of this iPhone model will be near Diwali.

So now lots of expectations may arise from you all or by now, after the release of the previous models, you must have got the idea of their loopholes. The expected time span for the release of the iPhone 4 has been confirmed to be between October and September by Chief Executive Officer, Airtel for India and South Asia Mr. Sanjay Kapoor. Till now, there has been no news regarding this issue from Vodafone.

They have not mentioned anything regarding the price of the iPhone but I personally feel that again the prices of this model will be three times the of their price in US and this is because the apple has already understood about the psychology of Indian customers and they know that many of us will run after the ‘name’ of the product, no matter how costly it is. We can take an evidence from the second release of this phone. They never made any amendments which could have made this product more user-friendly. The cost of iPhone 3G is around 200$ (including AT&T subscription and Shipping charges) in US and it was around Rs31,000 for 8Gb version, when it was launched in our country. Does this make any sense?

But, still ‘apple is apple’, the sound quality, the visual features, battery life and appearance rocks and no other can compete with iPhone when it comes to brand name. The additional features as compared to iPhone 3G are mentioned below:-

Video calling with face to face with retina display and this time the resolution will be 960 by 640 (compared to 480 by 320 in iPhone 3G).
Camera will be of 5 megapixel with LED flash (as compared to 3 megapixel).
This time Apple A4 processor will be installed in it.
Dual Mic noise suppression.

So, these features may again attract a huge crowd (we people are completely unexpected). But, we all know that there is an unofficial route for us if we like this product and want to get it at lower cost. This can be done by getting an iPhone shipped from US and then getting its lock broken or you can for buying an iPhone from Canada and UK, as Apple sells unlocked iPhones into these countries and then you can use them with any GSM SIM.

Airtel iPhone 4 In India To Be Available September or October is a post from Technix Update

Read The Original Here:TechnixUpdate

Apple Says All Phones Hit By Signal Drop Called Antennagate At Press Conference

conturix — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 17:58:13 +0000

In the press conference held by Apple for their much publicized antenna design and signal drop issues while holding the iPhone 4 in a certain position, Apple came out clean with a rather unusual way of explanation – They say that the issue is not just special to the iPhone 4, they say every smartphone gets a hit to its signal when held in a particular position. Apple has termed this problem as ‘Antennagate‘ and came up with proof that this problem is not unique to the iPhone.

Steve Jobs demonstrated this fact by showing the drop in signals of various other popular smartphones in the market.

Blackberry Bold 9700 –

(Image Credit: Engadget)
HTC Droid Eris –

(Image Credit: Engadget)
Samsung Omnia II –

(Image Credit: Engadget)

Solution Offered By Apple

iOS 4.0.1 was released yesterday, which fixed the display bug related to number of bars and signal strength and the Exchange bug.
Consumer Reports said that the Bumper fixes all of the problems that have been publicized about the iPhone 4 so far. So Apple has decided to give everyone a free case for their iPhone 4.
Anybody who has already purchased a Bumper is eligible for a refund
Since Apple doesn’t have nearly enough time or resources at their disposal to make Bumpers for every iPhone 4 user, they are sourcing a few other cases, a choice amongst them would be available to every iPhone user for free, online.
Anybody returning an undamaged iPhone 4 before 30 days after purchase is eligible for a full refund.

Steve also talked about some problems with the proximity sensor and ensured that Apple is working on fixing it.

As far as the white iPhone is concerned, Apple will start shipping it by the end of July.

Apple Says All Phones Hit By Signal Drop Called Antennagate At Press Conference is a post from Technix Update

Read The Original Here:TechnixUpdate

Regulate, Modify or Adjust The Exhaust Fan Speed On Your MacBook Pro

conturix — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 05:58:08 +0000

If you use a MacBook or a MacBook Pro, then at some point of time while the machine was placed on your lap, or you were using a CPU intensive application, you must’ve felt the bottom of the case getting heated up, to a point where it becomes really uncomfortable keeping it on your lap, or in some rare cases, it may even leave burn marks on the surface where it is kept (a table for example). Mac OS X automatically pumps up the speed of your exhaust fan with an increase in CPU usage, but for normal usage, the fan runs at a default speed which is set by Apple to around 1500-2000 RPM, depending on the make or model of your MacBook.

smcFanControl is a small utility that lets you regulate the speed of your exhaust fan. It allows you to override this lower limit that is set by Apple. I use a MacBook White (Early 2008) model and the default lower limit for the fan speed set by Apple on my MacBook is 1800 RPM. I decided to test out how much effect the fan speed has on the CPU temperature.

smcFanControl allows you to setup profiles, which define the minimum speed of the exhaust fan. Two profiles are defined here -

Default – 1800 RPM

Higher RPM – 4000 RPM

Testing and Results

I first selected the ‘Default’ profile, and continued my work (I didn’t launch any new applications, just continued using the ones that were open, without putting much load on the already open ones). I tested this profile for about 10 minutes, and almost constantly, my CPU was running at 60 °C (values noted down using iStat Menus).

I then switched to the second profile, ‘Higher RPM’, and continued doing the same work, with the same applications open. Within a minute of switching to the ‘Higher RPM’ setting, the temperature went down by 3 degrees to 57 °C. After 10 minutes of running on this profile, the temperature went to a constant 55 °C.

The test was successful, and I could feel the temperature difference as the laptop was resting on my lap.

Safety

smcFanControl is a brilliant utility which can help you bring down the temperature of your MacBook in an effective manner. But it also takes care of safety. Even though it is theoretically possible to reduce the speed of your exhaust fan to 0 RPM, but that could result in your hardware getting damaged from overheating. Thus, smcFanControl does not allow you to choose a speed setting for your fan lower than the default limit set by Apple. That limit is defined by leftmost corner of the slider in the smcFanControl preferences. For my MacBook, this number was 1800 RPM. This safety feature prevents your hardware from getting damaged due to overheating.

Other Features

Though I would like to keep my MacBook cool, but running your exhaust fan at a higher RPM comes at a cost which is battery life. If the fans are running faster, they will consume your battery faster. To help you out with power management, smcFanControl has features which will help you define profiles that will automatically be activated based on the power source and the status of the battery. I’ve setup the profiles and setting such that when my MacBook is running on battery, it will use the ‘Default’ profile, and while charging or running on AC power, it will use the ‘Higher RPM’ profile.

Regulate, Modify or Adjust The Exhaust Fan Speed On Your MacBook Pro is a post from Technix Update

Read The Original Here:TechnixUpdate

17+ New Features In iOS 4 iPhone 4 OS

conturix — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 23:58:08 +0000

Apple officially dropped the word ‘Phone’ from the name of the iPhone OS, and has chosen to call the new version the iOS 4. This new OS introduces thousands of new features, most of them are surrounded on giving both the developers and users more control and a better overall experience .

Here is a list of new features in iOS 4

1500 new developer APIs
100 new user features
Multitasking
Folders
Retina display integration
Mail – unified inbox and threading
Enhanced camera and photo apps
Deeper enterprise support
Better data protection
Mobile device management
Wireless app distribution
Multiple Exchange accounts
Exchange Server 2010
SSL VPN support
Microsoft ‘Bing’ added to the list of search engines, default is still Google, Yahoo being the 3rd option
iBooks – same as on iPad, now you can sync books over all your devices.
iAds – New feature for developers, ads open up in the app rather than the browser, developers get 60% revenue, support for interactive ads.

The iOS 4 upgrade is free for all iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS and iPod Touch (excluding first gen) users, and will be available from June 21st.

17+ New Features In iOS 4 iPhone 4 OS is a post from Technix Update

Read The Original Here:TechnixUpdate

How To Know Whether Your iPhone Has New or Old Bootroom

conturix — Tue, 04 May 2010 11:58:08 +0000

Jailbreaking and Unlocking with iPhone is fun, but these days apple is trying to make people life harder by introducing new changes in iPhone hardware and software which could stop or prevent people from jailbreaking their devices.

One of the change done by apple is the fix they had done in iPhone 3GS bootroom, they have fixed the potential bug found in old iPhone device which allows to unlock the iPhone to use a different carrier. There is no tool which can unlock an iPhone with new bootroom. Now the question arise here, how could one know whether his / her iPhone has a newer or old bootroom so that he /she gets to know whether their apple devices can be unlocked or not.

How To Check Bootroom Version On iPhone

To check whether your iPhone has a newer or older bootroom, boot up your iPhone and go to Settings >> About

Check your model number – if it begins with “MC” then you have the new bootroom if it is not “MC” then you have an older bootroom also check the 4th and 5th number in you serial number if it is lower then 40 then you have an old bootroom.

How To Know Whether Your iPhone Has New or Old Bootroom is a post from Technix Update

Read The Original Here:TechnixUpdate

Twitter grows up: Take a peek inside

Author — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 21:38:12 +0000

What a week for Twitter.

The mircroblogging firm made nearly a dozen announcements this week, marking a huge shift in Twitter’s business strategy, starting with the fact that it now actually has a business strategy.

At its developer conference, codenamed Chirp, the company unveiled promoted tweets, new official mobile apps, an enhanced geo-tagging feature, a proprietary link-shortening function, live search on Bing and the sale of its archives.

“Twitter’s been under a lot of pressure to be a more transparent business,” said Augie Ray, senior social-networking analyst at Forrester Research. “Now the company has come to a point in its maturity where it’s starting to operate much more as a business and less as a startup.”

The new moves aren’t without critics. Some customers have found the promoted tweets to be intrusive. Third-party app developers are worried that Twitter is trying to put them out of business. And location-based apps like Foursquare and Gowalla can’t be too pleased that Twitter is planning to launch a similar service.

But Twitter has also been scrutinized for taking too long to unveil a roadmap. Developers weren’t sure where to invest their efforts, and analysts grew frustrated wondering when the company was going to grow up.

It appears that time has come.

Promoted tweets: By far the most significant announcement. When users search with select keywords, a tweet from a company that bought those keywords will appear at the top of the feed. Companies that currently feature ads on the site include Best Buy (BBY, Fortune 500), Starbucks (SBUX, Fortune 500) and Sony Pictures.

Though some Twitter users predictably reacted negatively to the announcement, Ray said most of the early buzz from consumers was fairly supportive.

iTunes 9.1.1 Available For Download Now

conturix — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 05:11:37 +0000

Apple has just released iTunes 9.1.1 with some minor fixes for the glitches and bug fixes. The update seems to be around 100mb with the following improvements as compared to previous versions.

• Addressing several stability issues with VoiceOver;
• Addressing a usability issue with VoiceOver and Genius Mixes;
• Addressing issues with converting songs to 128 kbps AAC while syncing; and
• Addressing other issues that improve stability and performance.

You can get this update just by checking for update in iTunes, or directly download full setup of iTunes 9.1.1 from the apple website. It is available for both windows and mac os.

For Jailbroken IPhone Users – Todays iTunes 9.1.1 update is safe to update. and blackbreeze is still compatible with it.

iTunes 9.1.1 Available For Download Now is a post from Technix Update

Read The Original Here:TechnixUpdate

Geek.com newsletter – April 22, 2010 – Big stories from this week

conturix — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 11:11:05 +0000

This was poised to be the first week not dominated by Apple news in some time. As it turned out, that wasn’t the case…

April 16th – April 22nd

Contents

Geek Thoughts

This Week on Geek

Geek.com Web Picks

Don’t Forget About This

Geek Thoughts — Top Stories on Geek.com

This was poised to be the first week not dominated by Apple news [...]

The full story can be found here:Geek

Apple's Latest MacBook Pros Are Confused About What Graphics to Use

conturix — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 23:11:37 +0000

Now, here’s something that you don’t see every day, my friends, namely the fact that an Apple user admitted a glitch or misuse from the greatest operating system of all times, on his MacBook Pro, which is one of Apple’s latest models. As we saw when they were launched, the new MacBook Pros now sport Intel Core i7 processors, and … (read more)

The full story can be found here:Softpedia