The iPhone 4 was announced today during Steve Jobs’ keynote at WWDC and the world is taken by storm again.

Its flagship features are, of course, the extremely high resolution screen, video chat capability with FaceTime, and the sexy new form factor. But there’s more to the 4 than that, and even those seemingly self-explanatory new features deserve a closer look. Let’s see just what Apple’s done here with its biggest update to the iPhone since the original.

We’re all pretty familiar with the new body, since it was really the focus of Gizmodo’s exposé. In fact, that was pretty much the limit, since they couldn’t do much else with a dead, locked phone. But they examined it very closely and found it to be beautiful and metallic. Its new squared-off look is a signal from Apple that this is an entirely new phone, not just an iteration of the original. You might say this is the true sequel to the iPhone, the 3G and 3GS being merely refinements of the original design. Three years is a long time to stick with what was essentially the same design, especially for a company as chameleonic as Apple. A change was due, and the change is welcome.

The new design is more squared off, with a flatter back, creating a stronger shape in both your hand and eye. It’s not trying to hide the buttons, but rather showing off their careful placement and clean lines. I think the overarching themes here are power and superiority, rather than slickness. The glass on both sides, we found out in the closing video, is “almost as strong as sapphire crystal” and can deform pretty seriously without breaking. Good news to those of us afraid of exploding iPhones.

The previously reported dimensions are accurate: 4.5×2.31×0.37 inches. It weighs 137 grams, more than expected and slightly heavier than the 3GS. It’s similar enough in size and weight to the old one that you probably won’t notice the difference, but the new flat back and squared-off edges will either delight or bother you. I’m guessing delight.

The announcement that the steel rim of the phone is in fact the phone’s antenna nullifies concerns people had about potential signal blocking, like we have seen in several other Apple products.

The Display

The new 3.5-inch “Retina” IPS LCD display sports 326 pixels per inch, and is 960 by 640 pixels. They’re calling it “resolutionary.” Hmm — Apple puns. 960×640 will be a meaningless number to most people, but the resolution nerds among us will recognize three things about it right off the bat.

• It’s a higher pixel count than any other phone out there. Even the mighty EVO 4G is only 800×480, and at a larger screen size to boot. This means the iPhone screen is among the sharpest, if not the sharpest, in existence (and suggests a similar upgrade for the iPad once the LCD tech is scalable).
• It’s twice the original resolution. All the old iPhones were 480×320. By multiplying both of those numbers by two for the new resolution, Apple has ensured that all the old apps can run on the iPhone 4 with a simple 2x stretch filter. Very important for back-compatibility and taking advantage of the enormous number of apps in the store. Expect “HD” upgrades for your favorite apps, though, and expect to pay. Update: We got some full-size screenshots here.
• It’s very nearly iFrame. Surprisingly, though, the iPhone 4 records in 720p. Whither iFrame? Is Apple giving it up? I sure hope so. (update: nope, it’s there in iMovie instead of 480p)The Cameras

The new 5-megapixel rear camera is a decent improvement. I complained recently about cameras trying to resolve too much detail on a tiny sensor, and the iPhone camera will continue to to that, I’m sure, but the larger lens can only make things better. The backside illumination, too, should really improve low light performance, as well as the LED flash.

iMovie: We’ve written it up in a little more detail here, but essentially you’ve got a powerful mobile timeline-based movie editor. That’s pretty insane. The interface looks pretty simple; you won’t be cutting together feature films with this thing, but you could certainly edit a home movie, and of course it’s perfect for sticking together multiple shots from your iPhone. It’ll cost $5 in the App Store — which seems kind of weird until you realize that it’s really sort of a premium add-on, and its themes and assets are things some users would rather just not have clogging up their phone.

iOS 4

Too many improvements to mention here…

There’s also iBooks for the iPhone now. Not bad: the increased resolution puts the iPhone 4 almost in e-ink territory when it comes to sharpness of text, so this could be real nice. Native support for PDFs will be handy as well. Good news: all your iPad books will work on the iPhone 4 as well. No separate download or separate book.

It’s worth mentioning that IOS is already an OS, and one by Cisco to boot. It’s deja vu all over again!

iAd got another plug, and will be going live July 1st. Joy!

Inner gear

The iPhone 4 runs on the A4 processor, the same one that’s found in the iPad (or near enough). Jobs claims a 40% improvement in battery life due to the efficiency of the A4 (plus the 16% larger battery): 7h 3G talk, 6h 3G browsing, 10h Wi-Fi, 10h video, 300h standby. Nice. This will certainly be used for making better and faster apps, and you’ll be seeing a lot of that in new games. Speaking of which:

The iPhone already had an accelerometer setup that allowed for limited motion controls, but the new 3-axis gyroscope is “perfect for gaming” according to Steve. Take that, Nintendo! With the new screen and this improved controller, the iPhone may now actually be a credible threat to the big N.

Its output options are unfortunately limited compared with other devices: the dock connector will allow for a 1024×768 signal, which was nice in 2007. The iPhone 4 can play 720p files up to 30FPS, but HD output would have been nice as well.

Pricing and Availability

The new iPhone will be available on June 24th. It comes in black or white, and with a new contract, costs $199 for a 16GB version and $299 for 32GB. If your upgrade date is in 2011 (i.e. 1/1/11 or later) you can get the early update price, which is $399/$499. And of course you can always pay full price: $599/$699 with no contract at all. The 3G is being retired, and the 3GS will now be $99. The June 24th date is for the US, France, Germany, Japan, and the UK. The rest of the world will get it in July.

Never dismiss an iPod, it’s always ready to surprise you with its outstanding featues!
iPod touch 2G and iPod 4G are now available with substancial discount.
Guess what? 35% off the Apple iPod touch 32 GB (2nd generation) means you’ll pay US $ 239.99 for one the best devices around!
32 Gig is a lot of space for videos, music and - mostly - apps you can download from App Store!

Be cool: Apple iPod nano with 16 GB capacity is now US $ 139.99, that’s 30% off regular price!

It’s a limited offer, so hurry up!

Apple kicks off 2010 tablet frenzy with the iPad: one of the most awaited and rumors-prone device in history!

A 9.7″ inches screen that’s essentially a bigger brother to iPhone more than a little one to a MacBook, but that’s what it was intended for.

Big news: meet A4 processor, Apple’s own processor, running at 1 GHz.
Available with 16 -32 and -64 GB of memory, with 802.11n and Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR.

Sports accelerometer, compass, mic and speaker and the usual iPod dock connector!

More facts: 10 hr batter, over a month of standby.

Runs the same Apps as the iPhone, so the iPad starts with a massive software library as well as developers support.

[ More on partner site MacSwitching.com ]

Let’s leave the boring economic & stock details to those really interested into this [so click here to read more Apple stock news], but Apple’s shares got up to $ 205.04 - super-atmospheric price!

For us, geeks, Mac-users and -lovers, what’s more important?

New products, of course!

On Oct 20th Apple introduced so many new produts and updates I barely can name all of them here, so let’s get a list to begin.

new iMac, it’s that simple: 21.5 and 27 inches display, new CPUs up to Core i7 Quad processors, up to 16 GB Ram (from the 8 Gig previously allowed). Simply gorgeous!
Several built-to-order options for Graphics cards, CPU, hard disk units available.
new MacBook: white policarbonate chassis but with unibody construction style, multitouch trackpad, 13.3 Led display.
new Magic Mouse: almost an iPod touch or a multi-touch trackpad - in a mouse! All the mouse surface is smart enough to keep track of your gestures!
Mac Mini: despite all rumors (and death bell tolls) it’s still alive - and fine! The 2009 Mac Mini sports a faster processor, twice the RAM, energy-saving features and a lot more!

A product I’m really interested in is the Mac Mini with Snow Leopard.
A special edition Mac Mini fully loaded with 4 Gigs of RAM, two 500 GB hard disks and pre-installed Snow Leopard Server with special remote management features.
Right now it’s the best way (and the most affordable yet) to get a great Mac server for your Home/Office and to fully integrate PCs and Macs!

Most Apple product should be available by the time you read this or eligible for pre-order; here are some prices:
Apple iMac 21.5-Inch starts at US $ 1.199
Apple iMac 27-Inch starts at US $ 1.699
Apple MacBook available for US $ 999
Apple Magic Mouse available for US $ 69
Apple Mac mini goes starts from US $ 599
Mac Mini with Snow Leopard Server (unlimited license) is available for US $ 999.

The iPod nano 5th-gen has been Apple’s best-seller, moving 110 million units with its promise of easy music listening in a very slim package.
Images

But Apple believes the era of dedicated devices is waning, and the Nano is a good example of how Apple is evolving its market-leading media players into much more.

The iPod nano 5th-gen got video playback two years ago and then added voice recording last year with a microphone or special headset.

Now, with the iPod nano 5th-gen released Wednesday, the slim player sports a video camera, an FM radio, a pedometer and an integrated microphone for voice recording. It’s a remarkable feat considering Apple has left the dimensions of this iPod virtually unchanged.

Let’s take a look at the additions to the iPod nano 5th-gen.

The camera offers standard-definition 640×480 video, although it can’t do still shots. The lens is built into the back corner along with a small microphone. The 16 GB version can hold up to 16 hours of video.

The video generally looked good, on the order of the standard definition Flip camcorder. The sound quality is decent, although I found it easy to get too close to the microphone, which distorted the sound.

The best part about the iPod nano 5th-gen is the effects the camera applies in real time to video recordings. There are 16 effects that let you stretch or distort images or throw the video into thermal, sepia or X-ray view. My favorite was one called Cyborg, offering a view of what the Terminator sees when it stalks victims.

Getting the video up to YouTube isn’t as easy as it is with the Flip, which lets you do easy uploading with its integrated Flipshare software. But with all the cool effects and the ability to take spontaneous video, the Nano should be a major source of YouTube videos, especially from kids.

An iPod radio has been on people’s wish list for years and it’s finally here. Apple has given the long-awaited feature a twist, building in a 15-minute buffer that allows you to pause a radio feed and listen to anything in that period. You can’t save the buffered audio - it just keeps moving along - but it’s a nice feature to back up and hear what you might have missed.

The radio also allows you to tag certain tunes so you can remember them or buy them later through iTunes. Though the Nano has a tiny speaker, you won’t be able to listen to radio over it because you’ll need to plug in the headphones - Apple’s or your own ear buds - which act as an antenna for the radio.

Check AP video coverage on Steve Jobs’ presentation:

iPod nano 5th-gen retails for US $ 149 (8 GB version) and US $ 179 for the bigger 16 GB version.

Starting today, Mac OS X Snow Leopard is available for shipping.
Current Mac OS 10.5 Leopard users are eligible to upgrade to Snow Leopard at the very low price of $29.

Snow Leopard is a truly exciting addition to the Mac OS X line, with half the footprint of previous versions, great new features in Expose & Stacks, quicker Time Machine backup, and faster wireless network interaction. It’s the world’s most advanced operating system, finely tuned.

Quicktime X and 64-bit support just to name a few features.

I’ll be checking ‘em out very soon and report about them!

You may think you’ve seen everything that’s cool around.
Think again.

Wacom Techno Cintiq 21UX 21-Inch Interactive Pen Display is so stunning and new you’ll ask yourself how you made it before.
It’s a tablet sporting the well-known Wacom quality plus a 21-inch UXGA (1600 x 1200) Pixel LCD display.
That means you’re going to do PhotoShop editing like never before: a pen display that allows you to directly address each and every pixel on the screen.
Resizing and contour operations will be outrageously easy and powerful!
The user-defined keys on both sides allow for even more customisation of both PhotoShop and your workflow too.

We tested the Wacom Techno Cintiq 21UX along with a MacBook (the white one, not the latest unibody!) and were amazed by the results!

With a 21.3″ TFT diagonal display, the Wacom Techno Cintiq 21UX delivers a highly sensitive pen-on-screen experience and a generous active area for working directly on large images, concepts, and designs in the most natural way possible. Working directly with the pen on screen is a natural motion that gives you an unprecedented degree of control and allows you to take advantage of natural hand-eye coordination, helping you work more intuitively and noticeably faster. The display’s completely flat surface allows the hand and pen to glide over the surface of the Cintiq without bumping into any bezels or borders. A dynamically adjustable stand allows you to rotate the display up to 180-degrees in each direction, incline the display from 10-degrees to 65-degrees, and even remove it for comfortable lap use.

System Requirements:

Apple has released an all-new iPod shuffle with an audio-based navigation system called VoiceOver.

Featuring no buttons save for the shuffle/straight/off switch and billed as “the world’s smallest music player,” the third-generation iPod
shuffle uses VoiceOver to let users navigate through songs and playlists, all using the in-line remote control. VoiceOver can tell users the
name of the song and artist, playlist information, and status information such as battery life.

The new shuffle also features a stainless steel clip on the back for attaching to clothing. The new iPod shuffle comes in 4GB capacities
only, and is available now in silver or black for $79.

“Imagine your music player talking to you, telling you your song titles, artists and playlist names,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice
president of iPod and iPhone Product Marketing. “The amazingly small new iPod shuffle takes a revolutionary approach to how you listen
to your music by talking to you, also making it the first iPod shuffle with playlists.”

Stop all rumors!

The guys at MacSwitching.com just reported that Apple has just updated Mac Pro, iMac and Mac Mini (after a few hours of down-service for world-wide online Apple Store).

Mac Pro -> new versions with 4- and 8-core, both with a redesigned interior,
iMac -> four versions: from 20″ (now US$ 1,199) and three 24″ versions (all with 4 GB RAM),
Mac mini -> all rumors confirmed: it’s totally revamped with NVidia 9400M graphics, in two models.
The new Mac mini sports two outstanding features:
- it’s the “greener” products from Apple ever (less than 13 W of power when idle, Apple says)
- has a crowded backside with 5 USB 2.0, DVI and mini-DisplayPort (and yes, FireWire 800!).

Have you been to Mars when Apple early this January announced the new MacBook Pro 17 unibody?
Time to refresh your memory, since it’s now available!

At first glance, you could easily mistake the new 17-inch MacBook Pro for its predecessor, the legendary 17-inch PowerBook G4 ( ; January 2006 ). The new model has roughly the same dimensions—at 15.4-by-10.4-by-1.0 inches and 6.8 pounds, it’s a shade wider, but a tenth of a pound lighter—and it retains the familiar aluminum enclosure and sleek design.

Inside, however, the new top-of-the-line Apple laptop incorporates not only a completely different processor, but a slew of other changes you should consider before deciding whether—or when—this is a machine for you. (you should…)

The MacBook Pro 17″ desktop replacement of Apple can also be classified as a multimedia notebook, because of its 3.1 kg and only 2.59 cm height.

Feature list at a glance:

With the iLuv iMM173 alarm clock and dual dock for iPod and iPhone, you can charge your iPod and iPhone while you’re sleeping and wake up to your favorite FM station or tunes from your iPod or iPhone. Featuring two integrated docks, an FM tuner, a large and easy-to-read display, and powerful built-in speakers, this unique bedside alarm clock lets you choose how you wake up every morning while making sure your iPod and iPhone are fully charged for the day.

The iLuv iMM173 features two integrated docks that give you the option of charging up to two iPods and/or iPhones. Do this while you’re sleeping, and when it’s time to wake up, not only will your devices be fully charged, but you also can wake up to your favorite tunes.

And thanks to the system’s powerful built-in speakers and jAura acoustic speaker technology, you’ll get sound with depth and clarity that belies its small size, making this bedside clock ideal for the kitchen or other room in your house as well. Note: iPhones can be charged on both docks, but only one will be fully compatible while the other will show “airplane mode.”

If you’d like to listen to the news, weather, or the latest radio hits, the iLuv iMM173’s built-in FM radio uses PLL digital tuning technology to ensure crystal-clear reception. The radio offers eight programmable presets, so your favorite stations are only a button-push away.

Or, connect another source–like the iPod shuffle, portable CD players, or other MP3 players–using the auxiliary line input. A remote control lets you operate the iLuv iMM173 from across the room, and a handy magnet on the back of the unit holds the remote when not in use.

The iLuv iMM173 features a large easy-to-read LCD with a 10-level dimmer that lets you turn down the brightness at night when it’s time to sleep. The time is easy to set, and a simple switch lets you change between standard and daylight savings time.

Dual alarm clocks, which offer the options of waking up to a buzzer, FM radio, or your iPod or iPhone tunes, ensure that your bedmate also wakes up on time. The iLuv iMM173 also offers a sleep option that lets you fall asleep to the radio or your iPod/iPhone. Plus, the alarm clock has treble and bass controls.

Price, about US$ 92.

There’s a saying that 2 is better than 1. When 2 can get together it’s special. The new JVC NXPN7 clock radio is very special. It accommodates two iPod players side-by side with its integrated dual-dock technology, charging them simultaneously and offering playback from each through the dock’s speaker system.
Supplementing iPod playback is an AM/FM tuner, and adding to the unit’s versatility is a clock and timer. In addition, there’s an analog audio input for connecting other devices for playback.
Though the JVC NXPN7 handles two iPod players, it measures a mere 13 inches wide and will fit almost everywhere.
It features sleek and sophisticated styling, with a black cabinet and speaker grille, and controls arrayed clearly and logically in a band along the bottom. Adding a bit of flair are two illuminated strips, one under each docked iPod.
These can display one of nine colors - including white, blue, red and others. The included remote control features dedicated iPod control keys that simulate the iPod control wheel layout, so users are able to easily shuffle, repeat, scroll and select songs from the iPod menu. Back illuminated LCD Analog audio input lets you add other MP3 players if you don’t have an iPod Remote Control (also controls iPod when docked)

In the end: dual dock, great sound, nice look and lots of features!
Price? $99.99 (just one time, not two!).

Still have to sort out all stuff that’s been announced yesterday.
In a nutshell:

Apple MacBook Pro 17″ with unibody, 8-hour battery (even though non user-replaceable) and up to 8 GB RAM (!!!)

iLife ‘09 which, along with all updates, introduces an interesting Garageband feature: music school lessons with the best artist around!

iWork ‘09
that introduces iWork.com, right now a public-beta online service for document sharing

iTunes pricing changes:

(check our partner site iPodPalace.com about this iTunes-related topic)

Highly recommended: check these Garageband previews with music lessons from selected artists!

This year, despite economical troubles worldwide, Amazon.com finished the 2008 holiday season with over 6.3 million orders on December 15th.

This season Amazon shipped to over 210 countries.

More than 99-percent of the orders were shipped in time to meet holiday deadlines worldwide.

Among top selling gifts in electronic and toy departments were Nintendo Wii, Apple’s iPod touch, and stealth goggles.

Several sources suggest that iPod touch and iPod nano are among the top 10 best selling product for the end of 2008.

Check here Amazon.com best selling iPods and MP3 players list.

More details here:

Wired.com
CNN.com
Arkansasmatters
Reuters

The Sony Bluetooth Wireless Transmitter lets you enjoy your iPod music wirelessly on a compatible Bluetooth sound system. It doesn’t use a battery, and draws minimal power from the iPod. Basic functions can be controlled from a compatible Bluetooth headset with AVRCP compatibility. The compact size and simple operation make the Sony Bluetooth Wireless Transmitter a must-have accessory for true music lovers. It is designed for any iPod with dock connector (30-pin).

Usage? Instructions?
It couldn’t be simpler You just turn on your iPod and connect the transmitter to the port, and in order to activate it, you set your receiving device into pairing mode and then hold down the button on the transmitter for about 7 seconds until the two devices are paired.
That’s it.