Apple Of My Eye

At the official SDK release/'roadmap' yesterday, we got much more than we had expected. As well as a large press release entailing the inner workings and functions of the SDK (a little over-complex to post), we got live demo's and the tantalising prospect of gaming on the iPhone. However, the story causing the most uproar at the moment is the announced release of Spore on the iPhone (September release date). The game was demoed, and alongside the other games on show (including Super Monkey Ball), Spore made good use of the technology available, using the accelerometer to manipulate the environment.

Further announcements included Enterprise apps and Apple's new Exchange server accomodation- head over to Apple Insider for the complete story. There was also the announcement that Apple would be restricting VOIP (Voice Over IP) programs that use cellular networks, but would allow those that use Wi-Fi; an interesting prospect.
Native iPhone applications are to be downloaded direct from the iTunes store, and developers will receive a princely 70% of the revenue in monthly installments.

The SDK is available for developers to download now on the Apple website (which is slow due to demand), including a nice iPhone software emulator to aid with the process. However, a $99 membership fee must be paid in order to post applications direct to the iTunes store. The full version (this is only a beta) will be released in June to all iPhone owners, although iPod Touch users must pay a premium.

Reading about this is great, but nothing beats watching Steve do his thing. Head over to the Apple site for a peek.

For those interested in the minutae, Mac Rumors broke down the SDK into four digestable sections:

Cocoa Touch - Multi-touch events, Multi-touch controls, Acceleromter, View Hierarchy, Localization, Alerts, Web View, People Picker, Image Picker, Camera
Media - Core Audio, OpenAL, Audio Mixing, Audio Recording, Video Playback, JPG, PNG, TIFF, PDS Quartz, Core Animation, Embedded OpenGL
Core Services - Collections, Address Book, Networking, File access, SQLite, Core Location, Net Services Threading, Preferences, URL utilities
Core OS - OS X Kernel, BSD TCP/IP, Sockets, Power Management, Keychain, Certificates, File System, Lib System, Security, Bonjour

Apple COO Tim Cook gave the following comment during last weeks Goldman Sachs Investment Symposium:
"We just received word on Monday that Apple surpassed Dell as the number one supplier of portables to US higher education for 2007," Cook claimed. "The ceiling for the Macs is nowhere in sight. Even if the market itself isn't growing, for us, switching Windows users is an enormous opportunity," Cook said.

This is great news, and can be supported by the numerous images of college lecture halls dominated by the Apple symbol. This story comes accompanied by the latest Apple idea, 'iPhone University'. Apple's laptops are highly appealing in education due to their durable, reliable nature, as well as the many great graphic and textual applications for macs only.

With news of the now imminent SDK release, the web has been set alight by stories concerning the iPhone. One of the most worrying stories being thrown around is that the SDK 'Roadmap', is just that. A map, leading to the final version of the SDK, suggesting that whatever is released on 6th March may only be a beta version. This is disconcerting, and sends warning signs that Apple might be struggling with the SDK, much more so than planned.

More positive news came in the form of a predicted mid-year release for the 3G iPhone. This news came with a report from UBS (a bank) that Infineon will be providing the new chipset for the 3G iPhone. The German company will providing a solution for the HSDPA platform, including a digital baseband controller, power unit, and radio frequency module.

Go on, Apple, try and wiggle your way out of this one. With a concrete date of 6th March, Apple have now committed to a final release date for the SDK. The above invitation was circulated by Apple two days ago, officially inviting developers and those in the know to the event, taking place in the Apple town hall at Cupertino. If you were lucky enough to get an invite, leave a note. Do you know any more than we do?

Update 3: Got the full scoop. Penryn in both Macbook and Macbook Pro (see here). Check out Mac Rumors and Apple Insider coverage. New NVIDIA graphics cards (still integrated in Macbook-shame). Check the Apple store for full specs.

Update 2: The Macbook Pro's now come fitted with multi-touch, LED screens (on all models) and faster processors. No word on the inclusion of Penryn just yet. The Macbooks don't include multi-touch (why not?), but their processor speed have also been increased.

Update: The store is back up. Well, what have we here. Not only the promised Macbook Pro refresh, but also a nice speed bump for the Macbooks.

Its happening. By the time Tuesday is over, Apple will have at least released one new product, if not more. The Apple online store has been down, worldwide, for about an hour.

Sources close to Apple have tentatively revealed that numerous shipments of new Apple products, including Time Capsule and possibly the new iPod Shuffle 2GB, are due tomorrow. The latest idea being flung around indicates that the Macbook Pro will finally be released on Tuesday, shipping immediately.

I must be honest, I'm beginning to lose faith that an update is even coming at all. This is the last Tuesday in February, and that was the indicated release window. So will the new Macbook Pro finally be unleashed tomorrow? Let's hope so...

Best Buy have a registered shipment of the following model numbers, which are possibly the new version of the Macbook Pro:

MB402LL/A - $1999
MB403LL/A - $2499
MB404LL/A - $2799

These price points are identical to the current models, but many Best Buy employees have indicated that the actual 'in stock' date is 3rd March. If this is the case, we have an even longer wait on our hands.

According to insider reports from Arik Hesseldahl from Business Week, the iPhone/iPod touch SDK may have been delayed by as much as 3 weeks, moving its scheduled release date from the indicated February window to late March.

Apple have yet to give any indication that this is the case, or any explanation for the delay. Hopefully, Hesseldahl is grabbing at straws, and the SDK will be unveiled sometime later this week.

Unfortunately, Business Week's sources have been reliable in the past, after they announced the upcoming release of an SDK a day before Steve Jobs announced it: their track record for this particular area is solid. Many reports have indicated that the SDK is actually rather complex, and contains many different elements, each respectively difficult.

Apple patents are the key to understanding the next generation of products. The latest submitted, by Wayne Westerman (of Fingerworks), is no different. This patent application shows diagrams directly relating to multi-touch on Mac OS X, illustrating a drop down control panel with advanced multi-touch settings. There are a series of 'chords', or combinations of different fingers, which to different operations. There are already basic multi-touch gestures instated in the Macbook/Pro's, but we can assume that those laptops are not equipped for the advanced gestures. The Macbook Air, however, may be able to adopt these through a software update.


This patent application effectively claims that the new multi-touch trackpads are sensitive enough to detect the various combinations of fingers which are being used. This opens up another world of functionality for Apple, and if the patents keep rolling in, it might be Apple-specific, which will really help to increase their market share. Mac-1 PC-0

Over the next week or so, and Apple 'event' is rumoured to take place. Its purpose, unknown. Its whereabouts, secret. Its attendance, undisclosed. And yet, a couple of days ago, a little bit of the mystery surrounding this event was removed.

Mike Shinoda, lead singer of Linkin Park posted this on his blog two days ago (the important section is bold-i-fied:

"today, we won our second german “echo” award! for those of you in the US, this is the equivalent of the grammy. thanks germany!

in other news, we’re in the middle of the tour with coheed and cambria and chiodos. it’s going great—those guys put on a great show. looking forward to our first show at madison square garden this week (sold out)! also, look forward to a special show that we’re doing in NYC in conjunction with apple…shh…it’s a secret..."

So now we know a little more- the event is taking place in New York, and Apple have enlisted the band to give the show a little more. Its purpose still isn't fully known, but the general consensus is that the event will be used to unveil the SDK (finally!) and possibly unveil the new Macbook Pro. Beyond these guesses, nobody knows. And that, my friends, is the joy of this game.

What do you think the purpose of this event is? And when is it happening?

Numerous Apple resellers and stores are reporting shortages of the notebook, long overdue a refresh. These figures support the theory that we will see a product refresh tomorrow, 18th February, a Tuesday, which is the usual day for Apple updates.

Even Best Buy, a huge corporation and Apple partner, has completely run out of the 15 inch models, and has stated a shipping date of 1-2 weeks. The decreased re-stocking of stores is a telltale sign that the Macbook Pro refresh is imminent. How soon will it come?