The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

There's a loud buzzing this morning, and it's not just the hangover from late-night celebrations of the Yankees' pennant win; quite a few tech and Mac sites (we heard it first from Edible Apple, although it's really everywhere now) are reporting on week-old remarks from the New York Times executive editor, Bill Keller, that were supposed to remain off-the record -- and of course are now playing on video all across the web.

If you look at the transcript of his chat, or the 8:20 mark in the video, you'll see him refer to delivery of journalism to mobile platforms, and then he mentions the "impending Apple slate."

Is this a simple moment of wishful thinking for Keller, or is it linked to the presumptive starring role that daily newspapers would play on the hypothetical Apple wundergadget? I can't wait to find out.

Read on to see the video.

Read more →

It's the Sunday before Halloween, and that can mean only one thing! No, not that you should have set your clocks back an hour -- that's next weekend. Tonight is about scary tech and the users that love it: Apple's most frightening products of all time. Whether the fuzzy-scary iPod Socks or the just-plain-scary Performa series, there are plenty of bonechillers out there... pick your favorites over at Apple History, the Apple Museum or Wikipedia and bring your nominations to our chamber of terrors tonight!

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!

You have to hand it to Reko and Bobby John for their stick-to-it-iveness; they were behind a similar set of iPhone costumes in 2007, but those didn't have the fully-functional power of these new outfits. Yes, those are LCD TVs on the front (not touchable, sadly) showing content from the (almost certainly) jailbroken iPhones mounted on top; yes, each getup weighs 85 pounds because it includes a car battery to power the display. I can see how the illusion would be broken by a 500-foot charging cable trailing behind them as they trick-or-treat their way around the subdivision.

There's a part of me that wants to tell these guys to apply their wild, inventive energy to more productive pursuits. And yet... there's another bit of reptile brain that simply sits and watches, in awe.

Thanks to John for the tip!

[via MacRumors Forums]

Domestic TV watchers who tuned into the NBC Thursday comedy lineup or the Yankees-Angels playoff game on Fox were treated to three new Get a Mac ads in heavy rotation tonight, all focused on the launch of the latest Windows version. You can watch all three ads (Broken Promises, Teeter Tottering & PC News) over on Apple's site.

While these ads are pretty funny (Broken Promises, in particular, features some excellent work by the wardrobe department), it's not clear if the message of upgrade challenges from XP to Win7 is going to resonate. Apple's marketing team may describe Windows 7 as 'antiquated tech,' but the big M clearly is expecting plenty of PC users to buy brand new machines to run Win7 rather than upgrading their old gear. Will they consider a Mac as part of the mix? We can certainly hope so -- but by all indications, Windows 7 is no Vista, and it's quite a bit harder to sell against an operating system that doesn't actively shoot itself in the foot. Heck, it's possible that there may even be a few Mac diehards in the opening day lines to buy Win7.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in.

Macworld and Business Week are reporting on the new hardware that's forthcoming as soon as the store comes up:

• New unibody low-end MacBook models with the polycarbonate shell -- still $999
• Entirely revamped iMac line, including a 27" quad-core powerhouse and optional HDMIDisplayPort inputs to allow using the screens as HDTVs (inputs on the 27" models only)
• Revs to the Mac mini line, including a $999 unit with Mac OS X Server preinstalled
• The 'Magic Mouse,' a multiouch wireless mouse that's supposed to run for months on 2 batteries (see above)

More in a moment. Details on all the new products now on display at apple.com

Last week, we were joined by NPD & Engadget's own Ross Rubin for a fun-filled hour of tablet speculation, iPhone VoIP consideration and Talkshoe & Skype frustration. You can download the show, along with all past shows, from Talkshoe or subscribe in iTunes.

We'll be back live tonight with one of our every-so-often Mac Help hours; call in with your Mac OS X questions, concerns and headscratchers and we'll do our best to advise you, live and in real time (yes, this can go off the rails very easily -- that's part of the spectacle).

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!

Oh, so tempting. Engadget and Slashgear link to this video from our friend Steven Troughton-Smith: Exposé-style app management running on a jailbroken iPhone. No, you can't download it anywhere yet; no, we don't know when it will be ready for prime time and available on the Cydia repo; no, we don't expect Apple to have anything similar in the pipeline for vanilla iPhone use.

But wouldn't it be nice?

Amidst the ongoing macroeconomic malaise (is it over yet? Can we come out from under the covers?), the PC industry's sales have been suffering as big corporations and cash-strapped consumers postpone those discretionary purchases of shiny new gear. The expectation, based on 2008's results, was that this quarter would be tough sledding.

Results from analysts Gartner and IDC, however, both show an uptick in unit sales across the PC market year-over-year (2.3% higher globally per IDC, 0.5% higher per Gartner). Any pickup in sales comes as a surprise to Gartner, which had predicted a 5.6% decline in unit shipments.

For Apple specifically, the news is also good: both firms predict a boost in unit sales and share percentage for Apple's CPU shipments, with US numbers up from 8.6% to 8.8% share (Gartner) or a blazing 9.4% share (IDC). For the unvarnished results, you can tune in this coming Monday, 10/19 at 2pm PT to hear Apple's quarterly earnings call.

[via BrainstormTech]

Last week, Steve took over the hosting reins for a rollicking hour of talkcast fun. You can download the show, along with all past shows, from Talkshoe or subscribe in iTunes.

We'll be back live tonight with our outlook for a desktop refresh on the iMac and Mac mini lines, the simmering issues with Guest accounts in Snow Leopard, and AT&T's decision to open up cellular connectivity to VoIP apps. Most of all, we'll be back with you -- and that's the most important thing.

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.

When we published our "Ultimate Mac mini Home Theater" guide in August, I drooled along with everyone else at the idea of supercharging my HDTV with a mini for movie and music playback. Something nagged at me, though, as I looked over the options for going from the mini's video-out ports (the current model sports both DVI and Display Port) to the HDMI standard connector that most TVs expect nowadays... how to get that digital audio signal onto the HDMI link, and avoid a second set of cables to handle sound? It seemed less than graceful.

If you want to skip over a clunky external converter box like this one, current minis and other Macs featuring the Mini Display Port connector now have a new option for HDMI; Kanex's two audio-included connectors can put the sound onto the HDMI link where it belongs.

Kanex is selling two models of the connector (both are on extremely limited availability right now, the company says). The $60 Digital Audio version includes a TOSLINK optical connector for premium quality sound, and the USB Audio version delivers analog audio for $50 [as of 10/20, the price has gone up on this unit to $60 as well]. Both let you put all your eggs in the HDMI basket and clear your cable clutter, while simplifying your TV remote input dance as you try to get the audio and video sorted.

We're hoping to get our hands on one of these units soon and we'll let you know how it performs.

Thanks to Michael W. for the tip.