Cult of Mac reports that it has received information from a "well-placed" source who claims to have seen a prototype of the rumored Apple television set. According to the source, the device resembles Apple's current Thunderbolt display but is "much larger" than the 27-inch model currently offered.
Mockup of Apple television set based on Thunderbolt display design
Among the key features reportedly included on the prototype Apple television set is a Siri-enabled iSight camera allowing users to make FaceTime video calls using the device. Addressing the fact that users are likely to sit substantially farther away from the television than they do their computers and mobile devices, the source claims that the camera will be able to automatically detect and track faces, zooming in on them for FaceTime calls even if they move about the room.The Apple HDTV makes FaceTime calls using the built-in iSight camera. The camera is sophisticated, with facial recognition and the ability to zoom into the user’s face and follow them as they walk around the room. This allows users to make video calls from the couch across the room, rather than having to stand smack in front of the TV.
In addition, calls are initiated by Siri, the iPhone 4S’s virtual assistant. “[Apple] used Siri to make a FaceTime call,” the source said.Apple's rumored television set is widely expected to make extensive use of Siri, a rumor that first surfaced in Jobs' authorized biography, in which he was quoted as saying that he had "finally cracked" the problem of creating an elegant interface for the device. With Jobs calling it "the simplest user interface you could imagine", speculation immediately leapt to Siri, which could allow users to change channels and find shows using only their voice.
The idea of a Siri-enabled television set quickly gained steam with a followup rumor from The New York Times claiming that Apple was indeed working on such a device for a launch in late 2012 or 2013.
Apple has reportedly been working with component suppliers on plans for Apple television sets in recent months, although debate continues as to whether such a product will be ready for launch by late this year, next year, or even 2014. read more..
Tuesday, 8 May 2012
Television Sets-Isight Camera-Facetime
The Metropolitan Museum-Costume Institute Gala-Elsa Schiaparelli-Alexander Mcqueen
If your interest begins and ends at the red carpet, the Metropolitan Museum's Costume Institute Gala doesn't change all that much from year to year. As the CFDA's Steven Kolb put it last night: "Sometimes you walk in straight, sometimes you come in from the left, sometimes you come in from the right."
On the other hand, there's more to this particular fashion party than a glamorous entrance, and each edition informs the next. Last year's opener for the Alexander McQueen exhibition—a potent mix of spectacle, timeliness, and emotional punch—would seem to have raised the bar. Rather than try to come up with another single-designer blockbuster, this year the museum has boldly (you might even say provocatively) put two designers head-to-head, in Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations.
One has long belonged to the history books and the other is still going strong, but Elsa Schiaparelli and Miuccia Prada are a couple of the most fearless nonconformists the fashion world has ever celebrated, and some guests couldn't but wonder what it might have been like had they literally shared a room.
"It would be very fiery—these are two powerful Italian women, and I think in their ways both quite complicated," offered Lady Amanda Harlech. "But I think they'd end up loving each other, and I think that would be a really exciting film."
As it happened, so did Baz Luhrmann. The director's short videos of Prada and "Schiap" conversing (featuring the Australian actress Judy Davis as the latter, reading from the designer's memoirs) play alongside the clothing exhibits, helping to drive home the idea of continuity and creative back-and-forth.
Prada didn't exactly bask in the attention. She barely broke her stride on the way in, pausing only to do a perfunctory live-stream interview with Elettra Wiedemann. "She's not comfortable with it at all," explained Luhrmann, who's close to the designer. "But it's part of being a creative force. You have to front."
Or, perhaps, let the kids and A-listers take the spotlight for you. More than a few of them employed Schiaparelli's trademark pink, the bright one the French still call "le shocking." That was the color of Poppy Delevingne's lips, of Lena Dunham's Stella McCartney pumps, and of the top that Coco Rocha paired with her vintage jumpsuit, a Givenchy number that once belonged to Elizabeth Taylor.
For all the praise lavished upon Schiap's sense of whimsy and her work with Salvador Dalí, there was little resembling one of the designer's famous bug necklaces or shoe hats in sight. Linda Fargo and Cameron Silver were exceptions to the rule, the latter arriving with a blowfish skewered on his walking stick.
Among the dozen or so dressed in Prada, Gwyneth Paltrow and Carey Mulligan, who served as co-chair, brought extra dazzle. Alexander Wang accompanied Azealia Banks, who performed after dinner. Pucci's Peter Dundas dressed Renée Zellweger. "No tape," he reported. "She's got very good posture."
Despite scoring a pile of pre-event headlines for dressing Kate Upton, Michael Kors arrived with Hilary Swank on his arm. "He is suave and wonderful and funny and charming. He picked me up at my apartment, like a gentleman," she cooed.
That's one kind of conversation that was going on at the Met. The more serious one proposed by the Met's curators awaited inside, and Joseph Altuzarra wondered what it would be like to be a third party in it. "I'd be totally intimidated," he confessed. "Although, I am in rooms with fiery Italian women during fittings for weeks on end, and it's usually OK."
Moments later, Giambattista Valli thought over the same proposition. "More scary to do this," he decided, scanning the canopied, raucous, celebrity-packed corridor leading up to the museum's doors, "than to sit and talk with amazing people."
—Darrell Hartman read more..
Monday, 7 May 2012
Paternal Grandmother-Savannah Hardin-Family Photo-Stepmother-Punishment
Relatives and friends of the grandmother and stepmother charged with running a 9-year-old girl to death as a punishment have been defending and attacking the women on Facebook and in at least one case nearly divulging what could be considered evidence. read more..
Security Encryption Software-Security Hole-Filevault-Lion
As you may have seen over the weekend, someone has discovered a security hole in FileVault, which arose with the OS X Lion security update, version 10.7.3, back in February: FileVault encryption passwords are now visible in plain text outside of a computer's encrypted area.The hole was apparently spotted by someone back in February, although it was most publicly first pointed out by security consultant David Emery on the Cryptome blog a few days ago and the rest of the blogosphere has run with it.Now, it appears that the problem could be bigger than previously thought: it turns out that the developer who first noticed the hole back in February has discovered that it exists outside of FileVault, too, with at least one other company's security encryption software, Lion VM, from VMWare Fusion, showing the same behavior. read more..
DevJuice: Sim Launcher updated
Landon Fuller of the Plausible Labs cooperative has just updated simlaunch, a github project that allows you to create iOS Simulator application bundles that launch from the desktop. This utility helps developers to share builds for testing, for promotion, and for fun that run on the Mac without need for hardware, special signing permissions, or ad hoc provisions. Although I contributed to the original project, all the updates were performed by Landon and all kudos and thanks should be aimed in his direction. Simlaunch is released under the MIT license (which is similar to BSD).DevJuice: Sim Launcher updated originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 03 May 2012 18:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments read more..
Smithsonian Institute-Steve Jobs-Patents
Steve Jobs fans in the Washington, DC area will want to check out an exhibit of his patents. Jobs had more than three hundred patents to his name, and 312 of them will be on display at the S. Dillon Ripley Center, which is part of the Smithsonian Institute. The exhibit contains physical examples of the patented items, like an Apple II, a Lisa, a NeXT computer and an iPod, as well as a facsimile of the accompanying patent. The exhibit was created by the nonprofit Invent Now, Inc, which works to highlight creativity and invention. It will run from May 11 to July 8. Tickets will be made available through the Smithsonain Associates website.Traveling exhibit to display Steve Jobs patents originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 03 May 2012 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments read more..
Sunday, 6 May 2012
Scott Forstall-Apple Stock-Apple Vp
Tim Cook's salary came up in the news last month when he was awarded a million shares of Apple stock, and cashed out a few, in addition to his many other forms of compensation. And here's another Apple manager who's taking advantage of Apple's soaring stock price when he can. Vice President of iOS Scott Forstall reportedly cashed out over 64,000 Apple shares last week, earning US$38.7 million from the sale. Forstall picked up those shares in 2008. He got 120,000 shares back then as part of a bonus, and as those just vested (minus about half for taxes), he went ahead and cashed them out. But this doesn't leave Forstall without an investment in the company. He's still got 250,000 shares set to vest at different times in the next few years, in addition to 2,988 shares currently held, and that's in addition to an annual salary of $700,000. What did Forstall do to earn all this money? Oh, just run the iOS division, which picked up $29 billion for Apple in just the last quarter. Just that.Apple VP of iOS Scott Forstall cashes in $38.7 million of Apple shares originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 02 May 2012 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments read more..
Parallels Desktop-Virtual Machines
The Parallels Mobile app (US$4.99 intro price, regular price $19.99) received an update today that provides support for the Retina display on the new iPad. The update is free to all existing users of Parallels Mobile. Parallels Mobile is designed to allow remote operation of virtual machines running under Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac. According to the company, the user interface and icons of the app were re-created in 264 pixel per inch high-resolution for the best possible user experience. When your Mac or virtual machine resolution is set higher than 1024 x 768, it's now possible to see all of the applications, files and images on the virtual machine with outstanding image quality. Parallels has also improved the login experience for connecting your Mac and remote iPad, and the app now supports international keyboards for the Mac host and Windows virtual machines in all languages supported by iOS.Parallels Mobile updated for Retina display originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 02 May 2012 12:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments read more..
Unique Design-Ipad-Bang
Bang & Olufsen offshoot brand Beoplay is giving the iPad speaker dock the B&O design treatment with the new Beoplay A3 iPad stereo dock. As you'd expect from the Danish electronics design firm, the Beoplay A3 is a minimalist, slim, black and polished metal wedge into which a first or second generation iPad is placed (no word on whether the shipping product will support the new iPad). The dock sense the iPad's orientation and adjusts which speakers are activated in order to produce the best possible sound quality. The A3 is designed to run off of AC if you want to use it as a kitchen or coffee table information center, but can also be powered for up to five hours off of a built-in battery. The firmware of the device is upgradeable through the free Bang & Olufsen Setup Utility app. There's no price or availability information for the Beoplay A3 yet, but you can sign up to be notified when it appears in the Beoplay online store.Beoplay A3 iPad stereo dock has a unique design originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 03 May 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments read more..
Friday, 4 May 2012
Renewable Energy-Data Centers-Greenpeace-Apple
Activist group Greenpeace today issued a new report entitled How Clean is Your Cloud?, targeting major Internet companies including Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft over their heavy use of coal-derived power for their massive data centers.Given the energy-intensive nature of maintaining the cloud, access to significant amounts of electricity is a key factor in decisions about where to build these data centers. Since electricity plays a critical role in the cost structure of companies that use the cloud, there have been dramatic strides made in improving the energy efficiency design of the facilities and the thousands of computers that go inside. However, despite significant improvements in efficiency, the exponential growth in cloud computing far outstrips these energy savings. Companies must look not only at how efficiently they are consuming electricity, but also the sources of electricity that they are choosing.The study covers 14 Internet companies, but singles out Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft as the biggest offenders. According to Greenpeace's data, Apple is the only one of the 14 companies to derive more than half of its data center power (55%) from coal. Apple also ranks third in the share of its power needs coming from nuclear sources.
Greenpeace acknowledges Apple's work to build a 20-megawatt solar farm and 5-megawatt fuel cell facility at its new data center in Maiden, North Carolina, but downplays their significance by claiming that the facilities will cover only 10% of the site's power needs. Greenpeace specifically takes Apple to task for its decision to locate its data center in North Carolina, which reportedly maintains one of the dirtiest power grids in the country. In particular, Duke Energy is continuing to invest in coal and nuclear power options while investing "very little" in renewable energy. A similar situation exists in Prineville, Oregon, where Apple has announced plans for another data center.To deliver iCloud services, Apple has dramatically expanded its data center infrastructure. It has invested at least $1bn in an “iDataCenter” in North Carolina, one of the world’s largest data centers, and just announced another facility to be built in Prineville, Oregon. Unfortunately, both of these investments are powered by utilities that rely mostly on coal power. Given the lack of transparency, siting policy or a clear commitment to power the iCloud with renewable energy, Apple is finding itself behind other companies such as Facebook and Google who are angling to control a bigger piece of the cloud.Apple maintains a significant environmental section of its website, including disclosures on its Maiden data center, which the company believes is the only data center of its size to achieve a LEED Platinum rating from the U.S. Green Building Council. But while Greenpeace gives Apple some credit for its steps, the organization continues to give Apple poor marks for a lack of complete transparency about its data center power demands and publicly-available policies regarding the energy considerations for its projects.
While Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft take the brunt of Greenpeace's criticism, Yahoo and Google receive high marks for their policies prioritizing renewable energy in their projects and for promoting policies to increase investment in renewable energy. Facebook also receives high marks for its recent commitment to renewable energy, including its latest data center in Sweden that can be powered with 100% renewable energy.
Update: In a statement issued to The New York Times, Apple discloses for the first time that the current data center in Maiden, North Carolina consumes roughly 20 megawatts of power, meaning that the 25 megawatts of power planned for the solar farm and fuel cell facility at that location should be sufficient for at least this phase of the project. Apple's long-term plans include eventually doubling the size of the data center with a second building, and read more..