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Early iPhone prototype with 5x7-inch display
Most leaked iPhone prototypes have been run-of-the-mill devices that resemble the iPhone we know and love. This latest leak from Ars Technica reveals the tablet roots of our favorite smartphone. These prototype images originated from 2005 and show an iPhone with a 5 x 7-inch display and a variety of tacked-on ports that were used in testing. As you can see in the image above, it's a Frankenstein-like device that looks more like an iPad than an iPhone. You can read more about the prototype device and peruse a few more images on Ars Technica's website.
Does Apple test the loyalty of new engineers with fake projects?
Let's get the answer to this question out of the way quickly -- no, Apple does not test the loyalty of new engineers with fake projects. Jacqui Cheng at Ars Technica looked into the veracity of a rumor that was given life by author Adam Lishinsky's book Inside Apple, which posited that some employees were "hired into so-called dummy positions, roles that aren't explained in detail until after they join the company." Later on, Lashinsky spoke about the book during a presentation at LinkedIn, and an audience member claimed that a friend had worked for nine months on "fake products" at Apple before moving to a "real" project. This claim, which was captured on video and widely reported by the Apple media, took on a life as a fact. Cheng said that several of her friends who are Apple employees were dubious about the claim, so she interviewed current and former Apple engineers and found that none of them had ever been assigned to a faux project. One engineer came right out and told Cheng "I find it suspect that they'd ever waste their own and the employee's time on something that didn't directly contribute to their bottom line somehow." An employee currently working at Apple told Cheng that "It's a lot easier to have someone sign an NDA and then fire them if they violate it." So Cheng went to the source, Adam Lashinsky, who said that he never meant to imply that he was talking about fake projects. "The concept I was trying to describe might best be worded as 'placeholder' positions or 'unspecified' projects," explained Lashinsky. As for the audience member at LinkedIn, it was more likely that his friend was assigned to an experimental project that never worked out and was eventually canceled. With Cheng's post, we can hopefully put yet another stupid Apple rumor to rest.
Ars publishes old-school iTunes image gallery
In honor of the 12th birthday of iTunes, Ars Technica Senior Apple Editor Jacqui Cheng has published a photographic family tree of sorts showing the app (and its predecessor SoundJam) through its various incarnations. It's an amazing trip down memory lane and demonstrates how even how the iTunes 11 MiniPlayer owes a bit of its design to the SoundJam app of pre-OS X days. What was the first version of iTunes you remember using? I managed to hold out until iTunes 2, which I used with my first iPod. Leave your favorite (or least-favorite) iTunes memory in the comments.
Ars Technica chronicles the history of iTunes
Provided that Apple doesn't decide to delay the release of iTunes 11 until December, the newest iteration of the music/video player/sync tool/store application should be popping out of Cupertino by Friday. iTunes has been around since January 2001, and Jacqui Cheng at Ars Technica has done a wonderful job of chronicling the history of the iTunes app since that time. Cheng notes that when iTunes 1.0 first hit Macs, Apple hadn't even released the first iPod. At the time, the app was used to rip CDs, let you create your own playlists, and then burn mix CDs of your own. Ten months after the first release of iTunes, version 2.0 shipped along with the iPod. It wasn't until iTunes 4.0 that we had our first chance at purchasing music with the app, and music videos didn't arrive on the scene until iTunes 6.0 in October of 2005. Movies showed up with 7.0, the iTunes Genius with 8.0, and home sharing with 9.0. Do any of us remember what the big marquee feature of iTunes 10.0 was? Ping, the social network that nobody used. Cheng finishes off her history of iTunes with a peek at what to expect this week (or next month) when iTunes 11 finally appears. "So what makes the next version of iTunes so great? For one, it has a revamped UI meant to provide a more themed experience when listening to albums. It also has better integration with iCloud, which now automatically downloads your iOS device purchases directly to your iTunes library on the computer. And finally, iTunes can pick up on a movie where you left off on your iPhone or iPad. Oh, and did we mention the redesigned Mini Player?" We'll let you know when iTunes 11 gets here, so visit TUAW frequently this week until you get the word.
Ars reviews the new iPad: "power to spare"
While there has been plenty of press about the iPad mini, not many blogs seems to be paying attention to the faster, full-sized fourth-generation iPad that was announced at the same time. Chris Foresman at Ars Technica took on the challenge of running the new iPad through its paces, and found that although the device has "processing power to spare," not many apps currently take advantage of the speedy A6X processor's capabilities. The review found that the exterior design is virtually identical to its predecessor, with the sole change being the replacement of the 30-pin Dock connector with the new Lightning connector. But it's the interior components that make the new iPad the powerful top-of-the-line beast that it is. As noted in the post, the front-facing camera now shoots 1.2 MP still images (720p video) and the LTE radios in the cellular-capable models now work in most countries with LTE service. Foresman notes the GPU in the device's A6X system-on-a-chip has been supercharged by using four Imagination Technologies SGX543 GPU cores running at a faster clock speed. Ars used Geekbench 2.3.6 to compare the fourth-generation iPad with its predecessor, and found that the score more than doubled from 758 for the third-generation to 1,770 for the fourth-gen device. Not many games or other GPU-intensive apps are optimized for the A6X, however, and the bottom line from Ars is "we feel most current iPad 3 owners don't need to rush out and upgrade to an iPad 4." What's your take on the "need for speed"? Do you plan on waiting for the next generation iPad, or have you already purchased or ordered a fourth-generation device?
Want to Roll-Your-Own Fusion drive? It's not for the faint of heart
If you've been lusting after a Fusion Drive but own an older Mac, a Fusion-like solution may not be entirely out of your reach. Posts at the jollyjinx tumblr detail how the eponymous hacker built his own Fusion-style SSD/Hard Drive hybrid using features built directly into OS X. Lee Hutchinson over at Ars Technica explains the technology behind this, discussing how Core Storage (first introduced in Lion) can tie two devices together into a single logical volume. If you're interested in the fundamentals that power Fusion, both Hutchinson's post and jollyjinx's write-ups (Fusion drive on older Macs, More on BYO Fusion Drive, Fusion Drive Loose Ends) offer absolutely fascinating reads. As for me, I'm just going to use the Apple-built version that should arrive on November 6, according to my shipping statement. If you have a spare Mac with an internal SSD and end up trying this all out, please let us know how it worked for you.
Daily Update for May 31, 2012
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
Ars looks at 25 years of HyperCard
Ars Technica has a wonderful writeup today about Apple's HyperCard, which would soon be celebrating its 25th birthday if it was still around. HyperCard was a wonderful tool; it provided a way for non-programmers to link "cards" of information with simple scripts and a variety of common Mac user interface elements. A button could play a sound, link to another card, or even perform calculations, so it was everyman's way of creating "stacks" of cards that could do amazing things. How important was HyperCard to the world? Although we don't hear much about it today, it was the first implementation of what Ted Nelson proposed as early as 1960 as "hypertext." Many of the early Web browsers borrowed heavily from the design and functionality of HyperCard, with Mosaic and Netscape being the progenitors of today's modern browsers. HyperCard was developed by original Mac team member Bill Atkinson and made it to market in 1987. Reading blogger Matthew Lasar's writeup on HyperCard brought back many memories for me. I can recall attending a seminar at an Apple office in Denver about HyperCard and its core scripting language, HyperTalk, shortly after its release. Author Danny Goodman ran the seminar and copies of his "Complete HyperCard Handbook" were handed out to everyone in attendance. That quickly became my favorite reference, and I began to create HyperCard stacks by the dozen. I actually made money selling HyperCard stacks through Heizer Software's "Stack Exchange," where I sold a variety of reference stacks I had created. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, I gave a number of talks at the Institute of Gas Technology's annual Chicago IT conference talking about the use of hypertext and HyperCard in business. While HyperCard hasn't been included with Macs for quite a long time (it used to come on a set of three floppies with every new machine), its descendants live on. The World Wide Web, SuperCard, and RunRev all owe a lot to Bill Atkinson's brainchild.
Ars explores music "mastered for iTunes"
Ars Technica's Infinite Loop blogger Chris Foresman took a detailed look into the world of modern sound engineering to determine if Apple's Mastered for iTunes program really does improve sound quality of songs that are remastered. The answer to the question of what sounds better ends up being as varied as the opinions of the sound engineers Foresman talked to. Recording engineer Ian Shepard told CE Pro that the process of mastering audio files for iTunes to make them sound more CD-like was "BS" and that Mastered for iTunes is just "marketing hype." Foresman enlisted the assistance of two engineers from Chicago Mastering Service who were initially skeptical about improving the sound quality of the digital files, but came away with the conclusion that "it absolutely is possible to improve the quality of compressed iTunes Plus tracks with a little bit of work, that Apple's improved compression process does result in a better sound, and that 24/96 files aren't a good format for consumers." We won't divulge all of the processes that Foresman and the sound engineers went through, but the results were fascinating. In the end, though, it all boils down to how the iTunes listener hears the music. To quote Scott Hull, the CEO of sound studio Masterdisk, "The end consumer doesn't listen like an objective scientist or robot; the end consumer listens one hundred percent emotionally."
The iPad as an IT professional's tool
John Welch over at Ars Technica wrote a wonderful post about using an iPad as a system administrator's tool, noting that Apple's tablet is "an addition, not a replacement" to the many tools that IT pros currently use to complete their daily tasks. Welch brings up points that I discovered when I first started taking my iPad along on client visits -- the size is right, the battery life is wonderful, and it's much more handy than a laptop or an iPhone. Note-taking, for example, is much easier to accomplish on the iPad, and it's possible to prop up the iPad for easy reading at a distance instead of squinting at a small screen. Welch notes that he's able to easily analyze data from Cacti or Nagios with just a glance, keeping an eye on how things are doing. With Welch's iPad, there's no waiting for a laptop to start up every morning. Most devices can be monitored in the aforementioned Web-based systems, he has email to catch messages about systems going down, and once a problem is found, he can "get a lot done over SSH." Welch uses Prompt (US$7.99) as his SSH client of choice, perfect for logging into Mac or Linux servers and desktop machines. For other sysadmin tasks, Welch has some concerns. There's no iPad analogue to Apple Remote Desktop, for example, although Windows network admins have a wonderful tool available in WinAdmin ($7.99). Apple hasn't released any management tools for Mac OS X Server that run on the iPad, but there are some limited third-party tools available such as Server Admin Remote ($9.99). Still, there's a good-sized market for sysadmin tools for the iPad, and if Apple doesn't step up to the plate to deliver them, Welch hopes that third-party developers will. If you're a system administrator who uses an iPad regularly at work, let us know in the comments what tools you use or would like to see.
Macs are being spied on just like Windows machines
Any tech savvy Windows user is familiar with the term backdoor trojan; either they've been infected with one themselves or know someone who has. Now, it's time for Mac users, especially those who work for entities that are targets for corporate or military espionage, to become more aware of this threat says a report in Ars Technica. According to Ars who spoke to Jaime Blasco of security firm Alien Vault, two backdoor trojans that infect Mac computers have been discovered in the wild. These trojans target the employees of several non-governmental, pro-Tibetan organizations and exploit a security hole in Microsoft Office and Oracle's Java framework. The holes have been patched, but apparently the security fixes closing them were not applied in this infection. Once installed, the trojans send user and domain information to a central server owned by the people who created the malware. The trojans then sit in the background awaiting instructions. This is only one report of such targeted attacks, but Blasco believes this won't be last. As companies and governments move from Windows to Macs to avoid security problems with Windows, it only makes sense that Macs will become the next target.
Apple keeps your iCloud data safe
Now that Apple is asking us to entrust our address books, calendars, files, photos, music and more to iCloud, many Mac and iOS users might be asking the question: "Is it safe?" Chris Foresman over at Ars Technica looked into the security of iCloud and concluded that "The simple answer is that your data is at least as safe as it is when stored on any remote server, if not more so." All of your data is transmitted to and from Apple's servers in an encrypted format, using secure sockets layer (SSL) via WebDav, IMAP, and HTTP. And all of the data is encrypted on disk on Apple's servers -- except for email and notes. Email isn't encrypted, according to Foresman, for performance reasons that include features like searching messages on the server. That's something that Mail.app and Apple's servers do very well. Notes are currently synced on Mac OS X via Mail, but with OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion adding a separate Notes app, encryption may finally come to your private Notes. Apple didn't tell Ars exactly what methods they use to encrypt data on disk, but believes that they're using "some type of file-system encryption that is decrypted on the fly when requested from an authenticated device or computer." OS X may be using the PBKDF2 (Password-Based Key Derivation Function) standard recommended by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and if this is also being used to generate the secure tokens for accessing iCloud, then your data is very safe. How safe? Foresman notes that "Assuming Apple is generating keys that are more than 64 bits in length, the chances of someone brute-forcing the key and decrypting the data within a lifetime are slim to none." While Apple's email service is currently not as secure as the rest of the iCloud services, Foresman does mention that you can use standard S/MIME encryption like PGP to insure secure email service.
Daily Update for March 2, 2012
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
Ars server logs show iPads using iOS 6, high-res displays
Another piece of interesting evidence of a higher-resolution iPad has been exposed by Ars Technica. Looking at web server logs for February, Ars staffers found that the site had been visited by devices running iOS 6. Additionally, some of the devices had a screen resolution matching the alleged specs of the next iPad -- 2048 x 1536 pixels. The Ars visitors came from Apple; staffers were able to match the device IP address with Apple's corporate IP block. While it is very unlikely that iOS 6 will be announced simultaneously with the new iPad on Wednesday, it appears that Apple is beginning to test early versions of the next mobile OS in-house. The screenshot (shown above) also show that the iOS 6 devices are running a slightly newer version of WebKit, the layout engine that powers the Safari web browser. Devices running iOS 5.0.1 display a WebKit version number of 534.46, while the iOS 6 devices are displaying 535.8. We're in agreement with Ars on one point -- iOS 5.1 will most likely be introduced on Wednesday at the Apple event or shortly thereafter, while iOS 6 will arrive in the late summer or early fall on a next-generation iPhone.
Support for quad-core ARM CPU shows up in Apple's Xcode
The default compiler in Apple's Xcode developer tools is the LLVM-based Clang. Ars Technica reports that they received a heads-up from a developer who works on low-level ARM assembly coding that the latest version of Clang in Xcode adds support for a quad-core, ARM-based processor from Marvell -- the Armada XP. Ars confirmed that the source code for portions of Clang includes definitions (highlighted in the source code listing shown above) for an architecture type of "armv7k" and a CPU type of "pj4b." According to Ars, PJ4B is a specialized CPU design used in the Armada XP embedded processors. So, what does this all mean? The most likely interpretation is that Apple is using the Marvell chip in prototype iOS and MacBook Air devices. As Ars notes, a prototype logic board powered by the Armada XP would let Apple software engineers experiment on optimization of the two operating systems while the hardware design team finishes work on a future quad-core ARM design. Is this the A6, successor to the existing A5 processor? Most feel that the A6 is just a smaller and more efficient dual-core processor, but Ars comments that the smaller design would allow Apple to add more cores if necessary.
Tim Cook email to Apple employees: "Apple is not going to change"
In an email designed to reassure Apple employees who might be a bit trepidatious after the Steve Jobs announcement yesterday afternoon, Apple CEO Tim Cook told workers that "Apple is not going to change." The email, leaked to Ars Technica by a reputable source, includes Cook's reassurance that the company will "continue to make the best products in the world" under his guidance. The text of the email is included in its entirety below. Team: I am looking forward to the amazing opportunity of serving as CEO of the most innovative company in the world. Joining Apple was the best decision I've ever made and it's been the privilege of a lifetime to work for Apple and Steve for over 13 years. I share Steve's optimism for Apple's bright future. Steve has been an incredible leader and mentor to me, as well as to the entire executive team and our amazing employees. We are really looking forward to Steve's ongoing guidance and inspiration as our Chairman. I want you to be confident that Apple is not going to change. I cherish and celebrate Apple's unique principles and values. Steve built a company and culture that is unlike any other in the world and we are going to stay true to that-it is in our DNA. We are going to continue to make the best products in the world that delight our customers and make our employees incredibly proud of what they do. I love Apple and I am looking forward to diving into my new role. All of the incredible support from the Board, the executive team and many of you has been inspiring. I am confident our best years lie ahead of us and that together we will continue to make Apple the magical place that it is. Tim
iPad killing the competition
With the iPad 2 hitting stores across the U.S. today and worldwide within a couple of weeks, Ars Technica published a report today showing that the iPad should remain the market leader for tablet devices through 2011. Citing data from market research firm IDC, Ars blogger Chris Foresman notes that Apple had about 83% of the tablet market for 2010, with most of the competition coming from Samsung's 7" Galaxy Tab. The Amazon Kindle, which is considered to be an eReader rather than a tablet, dominated its market with almost a 50% share in the fourth quarter of 2010. The Motorola Xoom was widely expected to take on the iPad, with better specs and the Android 3.0 OS. Unfortunately for this pretender to the throne, it was lacking some promised hardware and software features when it shipped, and is priced higher than most iPad 2 models. Forrester's Sarah Rotman Epps blogged that all of the upcoming competitors, such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, the HP Touchpad, and RIM's PlayBook, have serious problems with their product strategies. Many are priced higher than similar iPad models and/or come with carrier contracts to subsidize the high price. Most of Forrester's research points to consumer disinterest in having to sign a long-term contract for a tablet. Forrester expects 24.1 million tablets to sell in 2011 in the U.S., and close to 20 million of those will be iPads. Another market research firm, ChangeWave, is also predicting that 82% of people planning to buy a tablet in the next 90 days will buy an iPad. And with that news, it's time for me to go get in line for my iPad 2.
Ars: Apple A4 CPU is a "feature-stripped ARM Cortex A8"
While much of the speculation over the iPad's Apple A4 CPU has been focused on the fact that it was a system-on-a-chip (SoC) designed by the minds acquired from P.A. Semi, Ars Technica's Jon Stokes has another take on the story. In a Sunday post, Stokes (who claims to have an inside scoop) notes that the chip really isn't anything more than an ARM Cortex A8 that has been stripped of much of its I/O functionality. The ARM Cortex A8, running at 600 MHz, is the SoC that powers the iPhone 3GS. Stokes goes on to note that the "A4 is a 1GHz custom SoC with a single Cortex A8 core and a PowerVR SGX GPU." What Apple appears to have done is to improve both battery life and speed by eliminating any functionality that isn't specifically required by the iPad. Common Cortex A8-based SoCs often have more onboard functions than are really required by mobile phones so that manufacturers don't need to design a special chip. As the article states, the usual Cortex A8-based SoC has infrared, RS232 serial, USB, keypad controller, and camera blocks to handle multiple input and output devices. The iPad, of course, will only need one USB port and one serial UART, both wired to the 30-pin connector at the bottom of the device. By stripping the A4 to the essentials, the heart of the iPad expends no CPU cycles or power doing anything that is unnecessary to the function of the device. Stokes believes that the real power of the device comes from the software, not from the A4, and in his conclusion he compares the iPad to the Nintendo Wii - "... another product that relies for its success not on its processor, but on its novel interface and broadly accessible software. I'm sure that if the iPad can do for mobile computing what the Wii did for console gaming, Apple will consider it a resounding success." With less than a month to go until the first iPads begin to make it into the hands of users, it's likely that other revelations about the hardware used in the devices will begin to make their way to the online media. [via AppleInsider]
Hulu's subscription service might run $5 for access to select shows
There was a mini-internet revolt the last time NBC Universal's TV chief started talking about ways to actually turn a profit from Hulu and the search for a balance continues. People familiar with the matter -- our favorite source by the way -- told the LA Times that the search in question could take another six months before official pricing is announced, but the latest idea being thrown around is to charge a $5 per month subscription for access to older shows. A quick search of Hulu just showed that only the past four or five episodes of newer shows are currently available, so charging for older shows means new access to additional content. We have to say that offering additional programming above and beyond what is currently free is a pretty good strategy, but the other one we'd like to see is a premium option to view content commercial free -- no word on if any of the paid content will still have commercials. The one thing this won't change is the fact that the content creators already sold the rights to these shows on the TV, which of course means Hulu won't be able to stop going out of its way to block things like Boxee and the PS3 -- still kind of shocked that PlayOn isn't affected.
OTOY: The game streaming service you've never heard of
While OnLive and Gaikai continue to hog the game-streaming spotlight, few are talking about the third option that people will have for server-based gaming: OTOY. And that's likely because the company (of the same name) behind the technology hasn't been exactly forthcoming with details -- even the official website has nothing more than the "Soon" image you see above. Ars Technica recently got a chance to check out the service in action, pushing graphical monster Crysis to an iPhone with reportedly good results. The service is still in its infancy, as demonstrated by a TechCrunch hands-on video we've dropped after the break, but shows a lot of potential. Considering OnLive's currently holding its public beta in North America and Gaikai's kicking off a private beta in Europe late this month, we hope OTOY decides to start getting vocal soon. We're all ears!
