Official iCreate Blog - Discussing all things Apple

Wow, a lot has happened already.

First up is an all-new 15inch MacBook Pro. Includes a brand new display and will also have SD card slot (really didn’t expect that last addition)

fastest notebook they have ever made. Up to 3.06 Dual Core CPU. Up to 8GB of RAM. Up to 500GB 7200RPM HD. Or, 256GB SSD.

Starts at a lower price $1,699

Next up was an update to the 17inch MacBook Pro: 2.8GHz CPU, 500GB HD, 8GB RAM.

13inch MacBook now becomes a MacBook Pro (all aluminums apart from the Air now have that badge.) $1,199

All these updates available now.

Talk then moved on to Snow Leopard, specs and features coming in thick and fast.

Some of the highlights are a new QuickTime interface, Finder is rebuilt, Preview reportedly twice as fast. Exchange support built in (could this do some damage to Windows in the business arena? Have to wait and see). Open CL will take advantage of multiple cores and use graphics cards to share CPU load.

Snow Leopard is available for all Intel Macs past and present. Apple wants everyone to upgrade so the price is just $29 (family pack $49). Awesome price! Snow Leopard will be released in September.

It’s that time of year again. Apple is hosting its World Wide Developer Conference in San Francisco next week  and the first banners have gone up. Apple has a history of giving away clues as to the subject of the keynote in the strap lines of the banners. Arguably the most famous was in January 2008 when ‘There’s something in the air’ was hoisted up on banners right before we got our first look at the MacBook air.

This year the strap reads ‘One year later, light years ahead’ (picture from Mac Rumors via Adam Jackson on Flickr) and is in reference to the App Store which has been wildly successful and seen over a billion apps downloaded in the last twelve months. The keynote this year is to be hosted by Phil Schiller in the absence of Steve Jobs (who we’re secretly hoping will burst onto the stage full of life to announce four new iPhone models) and will no doubt centre around the new iPhone operating system, 3.0.

In the lead up to the event there have been all manner of rumours floating around about the introduction of a new iPhone, possibly even four of them. It would be strange of Apple not to demonstrate the new OS without doing it on a new phone that could make the new features look even cooler than they do on the iPhone 3G. Other pointers to the launch of a new phone are hidden screen shots in the new OS that show video capture (currently unavailable on the 3G) and the inventory listings in places that are likely to stock the device.

Other rumours suggest Apple is about to launch a tablet/netbook device but we really can’t see this happening next week. That definitely is Steve Jobs territory and would likely be hosted by the big man himself.

If you want to get involved in the event as it happens you can tune into Blog Talk Radio.com where iCreate will be hosting a call in show. So, if you want ring us up and give us your thoughts on the announcement you can do just that. More details to follow later this weekend!

Here are iCreate towers we are used to being bombarded with spam emails, we get all of the ‘male enhancement’ messages, a few Russian women who want to meet us and everyone on the team has won some kind of lottery or other.

We also get all of the secret messages from company tycoons in other countries who are desperate to share their wealth with us if we’d just send them a few details and cheque for a small amount to cover the administration of a huge money transfer. What we never expected to get was an email that pretends to be an official MobileMe communication trying to get us to renew our subscription. What was even less likely was that we almost fell for it.

The phishing scam is very well worded, very well designed and could easily fool MobileMe customers so be very wary. Here is a grab of the communication we received:

As you can see it looks pretty official and we even (having already worked out that it was fraudulent) clicked the link to see what the payment page was like. It too was very convincing.

The thing to remember with all of these scams is that no reputable company will ask you to deliver bank details via a link in an email. They will always ask you to log into your official account first so that you can change details or make payments securely. If a company you trust does send you a notification of this kind you should always double check that the information in the email is correct by either visiting the official site and logging in or phoning their customer services.

So be warned, even we Mac users are starting to become the target of phishing scams and these guys are getting good. There are a lot of people out there trying to take you for all you’re worth so be extremely vigilant!

Bloomberg is reporting that Apple and Jonathan Ive have lost their battle to win www.jonathanive.com (and three other sites based on the name) from a UK fan of the Apple designer.

“Ive, 42, filed a complaint with the World Intellectual Property Organization, or WIPO, to block Harry Jones of London, a self-described Ive fan, from using domain names including jonathanive.com and jonyive.com. The Geneva-based agency rejected Ive’s claim, saying his name isn’t commercialized”

The most interesting thing about this story is that Apple claims to have offered Jones $10,000 in return for the domains. According to Apple he then demanded $400,000. Jones, however, has a different story. He claims he was only offered an iPod and then a MacBook.

An iPod or a MacBook? Apple could afford so give him both surely? I personally would have asked for one of everything from the Apple Store…

Jones has posted a reply to all the news interest on the site which you can reach here and here is a quote from his public letter:

“I would be happy to reach an amicable solution with Jonathan Ive. I have told his lawyers this and that I would be pleased to discuss this matter with him in person and to try any process that would allow an amicable settlement of this matter (e.g. mediation). I have received no response to this request so far.”

We think that Apple should really cough up if they want the domain. Come on Apple, you’ve got enough cash in the bank…

Apple news website MacNN is running a story which claims that Apple is looking to create kiosks for people to add media to their iPods and/or iPhones. The idea is that you will be able to swipe your credit card to pay for music, videos or apps and then either dock or wirelessly sync the media to your device. While this sounds like a feasible idea, will anyone actually use it? It won’t be like a drinks machine where you’re parched and decide to grab a bottle of something while you’re on the go. Surely, once the novelty wears off they’ll just be a massive waste of money and sit unloved in railway stations and at bus stops. What do you think? Let us know in the comments…

The latest issue of iCreate is on sale today at all good newsagents, bookstores and at www.imagineshop.co.uk.

This month’s issue features a detailed guide to creating incredible iWeb websites using our iWeb Creative Cookbook to teach you the ingredients and techniques you need to design the ultimate site. We’ve also included over £300 worth of iWeb resources on the disc for you to sprinkle into your creations. Elsewhere, we run down the 100 best free Mac apps and include 24 of them on your free disc so you don’t even have to be online to begin enhancing your software collection.

As well as the iLife ’09, Mac OS X and Pro App tutorials you’re used to, we also showcase the best new iPhone and iPod touch applications and take a look under the hood of the new 17-inch MacBook Pro.

So head down to your local store or visit www.imagineshop.co.uk to get hold of your copy today.

A detailed list of contents can be found here.

Have you ever thought that time is nearly up for the humble mouse? That at some point someone’s going to come up with a far better way for us to control our computers? The people at EyeTwig have. They’ve come up with a very cool piece of software that lets you control your mouse through the movements of your head. It uses your iSight camera to detect movement and then translates it into mouse movements.

The software costs $30 but its possible to get a fully functioning demo from the EyeTwig website. The demo only works for ten minutes but that’s just enough time to convince your mates you have developed a psychic connection with your Mac.

Seriously though, the technology behind the app is incredible and is well worth playing with, just to get a glimpse at the kind of things being developed. If this kind of program is available now, how long will it be before we have displays that can detect the movements of our hands so we can move and rotate objects?

Very cool. Check it out!

Normally we’re used to the Apple rumour mill churning out stories about unlikely new products – there was one this week that looked like a new netbook but turned out to be an art project made of wood. So it was quite surprising to see a story surface about Apple being involved in a couple of interesting takeover bids. TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington has been reporting that there have been rumours floating around stating that Apple is interested in purchasing Twitter for $700 million in cash. The other rumour involves the takeover of games company EA.

For a lot of companies, takeovers are used to help alleviate debt or to ingest talent. Apple is famous for applying the latter (PA Semi). As Apple has a stack of cash built up and Twitter has yet to find a way to be profitable (despite some 25 million users) we don’t see any proposed takeover as a means to make money (unless Apple comes straight out and charges everyone for using it), but it could be a way for the Cupertino company to extend MobileMe, push advertising, or generally snoop on what people want in the computer market place. Let’s face it, most companies would quite happily spend $700 million to find out exactly what 25 million people really think of their products and services.

The EA rumour is interesting for different reasons. The iPod touch has been touted as a gaming device, even though it will run the majority of iPhone apps. So, should Apple wish to make even greater inroads into the mobile gaming market then the talent at EA could certainly help with that. But again, this isn’t as cut and dry in logical terms as the PA Semi buyout was.

Of course, the upshot of all of this is that takeover bids can seem to have a surprising affect on stock prices, both for the company who is buying and especially for the one selling. So before we get caught up in the hype we should double check that this rumour isn’t also made of wood…

There’s good news for Photoshop users – a new site has launched that offers amazing free creative resources. Photoshop Daily (www.photoshopdaily.co.uk) brings together everything that a Photoshop user could ever want. Visitors can enjoy daily reports on anything that is of interest to Photoshop users, from the latest rumours and activities from Adobe, right through to showcasing cool gadgets or sites to expand Photoshop’s creativity.

In addition to creative news, visitors will also benefit from a free resource every day. Each day will be different, but each resource will be something to help creative Photoshop endeavours. It might be a feature explaining how to master a certain Photoshop skill, a brush set to have some fun with, a photo pack to use in personal work, a desktop to help with inspiration or maybe a video tutorial to boost Photoshop prowess.

To get your free Photoshop goodies, head over to www.photoshopdaily.co.uk and get downloading!

If you’ve got the new iLife ’09 then you’ve got a handful of tracks for your iTunes library that you probably didn’t know you owned.

We’ve been playing about with the new iPhoto slideshows today and noticed that, by default, there are six tracks that play during the new slideshow themes in a playlist called ‘Theme Music’.

Five of them are available on the iTunes Store for £0.79, but you actually already own them!

The tracks are as follows:

Hey Now - Red Garland (KenBurns)
You’ve Got a Friend in Me - Randy Newman (Scrapbook)
Doxy - Miles Davis (Snapshots)
Linus & Lucy - Vince Guaraldi (SlidingPanels)
I Want Freedom - Chris Joss (Shatter)

While Apple has carefully hidden the DRM-free tracks on your hard drive, you can access them at the following location:
MacintoshHD>Library>Application Support>iLifeSlideshow>Audio

The tracks appear as their slideshow titles (listed above), but once added to iTunes will regain their original names.

While we don’t condone any form of sharing or commercial use of these tracks, syncing them to your iPod or iPhone is perfectly acceptable. After all, you did technically pay for them when you bought your new Mac or iLife ’09…