iMacs
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Refurbished UK hotel features a Mac in every room
From the land of Shakespeare we have a remodeled hotel that has gone Mac in every room. The Menzies Welcombe Hotel in Stratford-upon-Avon is now about as tech-friendly as a hotel can be, especially for a hotel built in 1866. All guest rooms now contain a Mac, a flat screen TV, internet connections, Skype and Wi-Fi along with something called 'power showers'. There's even a helicopter landing pad. Shakespeare would be impressed. The Welcombe is not the only upscale hotel to embrace Macs. The Fountainenbleau in Miami also offers 20" iMacs in every room, as well as docking station-equipped alarm clocks for iPods and other iOS devices. The iMacs can be used to book activities and make reservations while you are at the hotel, although they are in guest account mode and don't allow users to access USB devices or save files locally. This is all a long way from the crummy clock radio I'm used to seeing in lots of the places I stay. Hopefully more and more hotels will use Macs to enhance the whole experience of being away from home. Thanks to loyal TUAW reader Josh for the tip.
Steam releases Mac stats, share drops to 5%
Steam has released its latest hardware survey results, and there's both good and bad news for us Mac gamers. The bad news first: Mac usage of the gaming service has apparently leveled off since the big debut a few months ago, and while the Mac share was originally around 8%, it appears the novelty has worn off a bit, and Mac usage has fallen down to about 5% of the total Steam audience. That's not too surprising (don't forget that the service kicked off with a free Portal game and a good amount of publicity), and it's important to remember that 5% of Steam's 25 million users is still a significant audience. It'll be interesting to see if Apple ever takes advantage of that -- we haven't heard a single official word from them yet about Steam coming to our platform, although the Snow Leopard Graphics Update was tuned to clear up issues that Valve reported. The good news, however, is that Valve has separated out Windows and Mac stats in the hardware survey, so even though there are a few less percentage points of people to look at, we have a lot of interesting information about those Mac users. As you can see in the graphic above, the majority of them are actually playing on a MacBook Pro -- iMacs are the next biggest model on the list, but represent 25% of Mac users as opposed to the MBP's 49%. Steam is also promising a list of most commonly installed Mac applications, but as of this writing, that information isn't posted quite yet. Unfortunately, while Steam is installed on a wide variety of Windows computers, I'll bet that it hasn't quite reached widespread adoption on the Mac side, so these stats will be specifically for Mac gamers rather than the Mac audience as a whole. But it's always interesting to see what stats come out of the Steam Hardware Survey, as a snapshot of just what our technology profile looks like. [via Joystiq]
Talkcast tonight 7PT/10ET: Heat Wave Edition
As per tradition, tonight you can chat with TUAW bloggers and hopefully some of the usual Mac suspects at 4pm Hawaiian/7pm Pacific/10pm Eastern time. Those usual suspects will include me, your host for the evening. We'll have some iMac things (or lack of things) on the agenda, the impending free case bonanza, and you'll have things you'll want to talk about. I. Will. Too. Remember: West Coast Host means you also get an opportunity to join in on the infamous (unrecorded) Aftershow. Prepare to answer the ultimate question, "Caller -- what are you wearing?" Your calls and questions help us make the show the best it can be, otherwise I'm just talking to myself! To participate on TalkShoe, you can use the browser-only client, the embedded Facebook app, or the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client; however, for maximum fun, you should call in. For the web UI, just click the "TalkShoe Web" button on our profile page at 4 HI/7 PDT/10 pm EDT Sunday. To call in on regular phone or VoIP lines (yay for free cellphone weekend minutes!): dial (724) 444-7444 and enter our talkcast ID, 45077 -- during the call, you can request to talk by keying in *8. If you've got a headset or microphone handy on your Mac, you can connect via the free Gizmo or X-Lite SIP clients; basic instructions are here. Talk with you then!
New Macs, something else tomorrow?
Engadget is the latest to report a rumor that's been circulating for months: tomorrow may be the day that we finally see those new Macs we've been waiting on. John Gruber claims we're going to see new MacBooks and iMacs (which we'll rate as "expected"), updated Mac minis (wouldn't be a huge surprise, though we haven't heard that so much about that one, particularly not a mini bundled with Mac OS X Server -- a very nice idea, though), and something called a "Magic Mouse," as well as a multitouch trackpad accessory. I have to admit: those last two sound less likely than the iPod touch camera -- while the new MacBooks and iMacs definitely wouldn't be out of place before a holiday season, breaking out brand new accessories without an event to back them up isn't really Apple's style. But then again, ours is not to judge: the rumors say new mice and some sort of multitouch trackpad, so that's what we're passing on to you. Believe it or not, as you will. We'll of course be up and refreshing Apple's store constantly here at TUAW -- if anything new shows up there, you'll see it here ASAP.
TUAW Talkcast live tonight at 10pm Eastern
Our weekly talkcast returns to the virtual airwaves this evening over on Talkshoe, so if you're around on a Sunday night, and want to tune in and talk Apple with a crew of TUAW bloggers and readers, you're in luck. We'll start up at around 10pm Eastern this evening, and we'll be talking about the biggest stories in the province of Applevania, including the "new" features of Gmail push and MMS on the iPhone (and how neither one really works as it probably should), as well as the ongoing rumors of new iMacs and the tough topic of how to actually install apps on Mac OS X. Should be a lot of fun -- definitely tune in if you can make it. To participate on TalkShoe, you can use the browser-only client, or you can try out the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client; however, for maximum fun, you should call in. For the web UI, just click the "TalkShoe Web" button on our profile page at 10 pm Sunday. To call in on regular phone or VOIP lines (take advantange of your free cellphone weekend minutes if you like): dial (724) 444-7444 and enter our talkcast ID, 45077 -- during the call, you can request to talk by keying in *-8. Talk with you then! Recording support for the talkcast is provided by Call Recorder from ecamm networks.
New iMacs and MacBooks coming soon?
Maybe so, if you believe the predictions of some analysts at Wedge Partners. They proclaim in their neverending analyst-y wisdom that in the next few weeks, Apple will again refresh its lines of iMacs and MacBooks, including a slimmer iMac and an only slightly updated MacBook. Why would Apple announce such a thing, especially so soon after the recent June revamp? Windows 7 is apparently the answer -- Apple wants to distract from Microsoft's big release, according to the analysts Personally, it all sounds kind of hokey to us -- Apple's already got their back-to-school lineup all set, and while there probably is room for one more update before the holiday season, it's hard to believe they're going to announce some extremely minor updates in a desperate grab against Windows 7. And not even the analysts will guess at a netbook or tablet release -- they say neither one of those is coming up for an announcement any time soon. You have to think that if Apple is doing one more update before the holidays, it really will come up in the next few weeks, so by the time Halloween candy starts dropping in pillowcases, we should know for sure. [via PC World]
Florida school may trash 200 Macs to go PC-only
This could be the saddest thing I've seen all week (and I've watched a few Cubs games): a Florida school is declaring itself PC-only, and apparently was planning to toss almost 200 Macs in the trash to get new Windows computers for the kids and teachers. Hearing that kids will have to use Windows is sad enough, but tossing out working Macs, even if they're old G3 models? Not cool at all. The teachers were apparently also told originally that they couldn't buy them or give them away to kids either -- it was the trash bin for these machines. Cult of Mac also updates with pictures of the Macs, and we warn you, if all of those machines really are headed for the landfill, it's a little scary to look at. Fortunately, the outcry has caused school officials to reconsider (or at least state their position more clearly), and it looks like what they'll be doing is assessing the machines to see if they can be refurbished and then given away or sent off to a recycling center. The other problem apparently lies in the software -- giving away the machines is no problem, but the school has to make sure all the software is cleaned off of the computers, as they don't have licenses to distribute software that way. And as the school administrator says, the computers aren't much good without an OS on them. But surely we can save these guys. Apple, want to step in here and grant this school some licenses to keep these computers (208 in total, many of which are likely workable, even at "five to ten years old") in the hands of people who can use them? It would be a shame if the school had to toss working computers because their hands were tied by OS X software licenses.
New iMacs are / aren't coming to WWDC
Good news, folks, we have no idea what's going down on the hardware end at WWDC, leaving ample room for two of the heavy hitters in the Apple rumor industry to come out with completely contradictory reports on new iMacs next week. ThinkSecret is quite confident in new brushed aluminum iMacs, that neglect the 17-inch model and aim to reposition the iconic computer as more of a premium item, starting at $1500. AppleInsider generally agrees on the move to slowly kill off the 17-inch and slim down the iMacs, but is fairly sure we'll have to wait until later in the year for any of that to happen. We'd weigh in, but we're too busy placing bets on how long it'll take that developer beta of Leopard, which will be freely distributed at the show, to hit the interwebs.[Thanks, Glen]Update: ThinkSecret seems to be changing its tune a bit, saying that sources are confident in the plans for a release next week, but that schedules might've changed, pushing the release into the following weeks. Like we said, no idea what's going down.Read - AI says no new iMacsRead - TS differs
Flickr Find: What to do with 50 iMacs
What would you do with 50 iMacs? That's the question that a classroom of kids wants your input on. They have 50 iMacs (mostly G3s) that are running a mix of OS X and OS 9. They need some ideas on what to do with 'em. The first thing I thought of was, of course, a Beowulf cluster. What classroom couldn't stand to use a Beowulf cluster?If that is too much they can always make 50 Macquariums.[via MAKE: Blog]
Apple updates iMacs, intros 24 inch model
I certainly wasn't expecting this today. Apple has just updated the entire iMac line to include Intel Core 2 Duo processors in each model. In addition they have added a gigantic 24 inch model to the line up, as well as lowering the price of the low end model to $999.The iMac line up now includes 4 models: 1.83 GHz and a 2.0 GHz 17-inch, a 2.16 GHz 20-inch and the all-new 2.16 GHz 24-inch iMac with the 24 inch iMac sporting a 1920-by-1200 pixel resolution. the 24 incher can also hold up to 3 gigs of RAM (which is more than an iMac could ever have), has a 250 gig hard drive (upgradable to 500 gigs), an NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT with 128MB of GDDR3 memory (upgradable to the NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT with 256MB of GDDR3 memory), a SuperDrive, and builtin iSight. Bluetooth and Wifi are built in, and all of this starts at $1999. Not a bad price at all, of course it goes up when you upgrade the various components.Oh, and all the new models are available... today (that was my dramatic Steve-esque pause).Thanks to everyone who sent this in.
Cracking open a new Intel iMac
Hopefully, I'll have my hands on a new iMac later today, so that I can weigh in with a little video review of the new computer, but thank the Woz that the Japanese beat me to tearing open the new iMac! Now, I can simply direct your eager eyes over to this site, so that you can peep into the new iMacs sans the distractions of English, and, as a bonus, I no longer have to tear open my own machine....unless I need to. ;-) Thanks, Robert!
