Talk about burying the lead -- Shufflegazine did a piece on Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Hwang during a visit to Dubai recently, in which he talks about how much he and his family love their Macs, and Apple's machines add value, and in his house it's just "Mac, Mac, Mac," and OH MY GOD, what is that SITTING ON THE TABLE in front of him? OK, it's probably not definitely not an Apple tablet (yet), as there's no clear Apple logo on it, but man that's a nice looking tablet device, and even Engadget says they have no idea what it is.

The thing is, this picture just appeared with Shufflegazine's piece, and while Hwang did go on and on about how much he loves Apple stuff (and yes, the two companies have a long history of sharing some hardware), there's not word one about that tablet or anything like it in the piece, no hint of any other hardware or partnership announcement. It could be a prototype, it could be another tablet we're just not recognizing, or yes, Hwang could have just thrown it down on the table during the interview, and Shufflegazine could have just completely missed it. [They didn't. -Ed.]

Though if that last one is true, we have no idea how it happened. How do you cover Apple and their gadgets and avoid being drawn to that tablet. It's so... thin and well-designed. We'll be honest, if we were in the room, we might have licked it then and there to claim it as our own.

Thanks to Nemanja for the tip.

The lack of Flash of the iPhone has been an issue, complaint and breaking point for many current (and potential) iPhone users. It seems that Adobe is just as fed up as the rest of us and has started to more publicly blame Apple for the lack of this technology.

When a website requires a Flash plugin, it provides a link to a "Get Flash" page. From here and on most devices, you can download the appropriate version of Flash and be up and running in a few minutes. In the past, iPhone users have been greeted with a message that basically states that Flash is not available for their device.

A recent change, pointed out by GearDiary, shows Adobe getting a bit more snippy with Apple. The updated page now states that:

"Apple restricts use of technologies required by products like Flash Player. Until Apple eliminates these restrictions, Adobe cannot provide Flash Player for the iPhone or iPod Touch."

While this may not be "breaking news," it does say a number of things. For one, Adobe is clearly able to develop Flash for the iPhone and obviously wants to introduce it on the iPhone and iPod touch. This also shows that Adobe is very in tune of all the complaints and has redirected the blame to Apple.

Yesterday, Megan noted a Fortune story saying that iTunes syncs flawlessly with the new Palm Pre. This, of course, got the water-cooler talk bubbling: "How did Palm pull it off? Will Apple allow this to happen?"

Turns out they already have. A tech note on Apple's website notes the two dozen or so third-party players that iTunes (for Mac OS X, at least) is compatible with, including Rio and Creative Labs Nomad MP3 players. True, many of the models listed predate the iPod, and the tech note itself was last updated a little less than a year ago. But third-party device compatibility with iTunes isn't without precedent.

Daring Fireball's John Gruber pointed to a story by Jon Lech Johansen that says Apple may block iTunes access to the Pre in a future update; Gruber himself said he "wouldn't be surprised if they did." I'm not so sure.

First, let's look at how it works. According to Johansen, a unique USB device ID allows iTunes to recognize MP3 players (including iPods) that it's compatible with. Johansen speculates that Palm is using one of these IDs when communicating with iTunes. If it's an iPod's unique ID, then it will work with iTunes for Windows, too; this is an important litmus test and we don't know the results yet.

I can understand Apple might not cotton to a Palm Pre specifically masquerading as an iPod USB device. Given that, allowing the Pre to freely communicate with iTunes isn't necessarily bad business sense, presuming Palm implements the functionality in a forthright manner (like other third-party MP3 players that iTunes already supports).

Why limit access to the Pre, aside from pure spite? If someone already uses iTunes, chances are they have some quantity of DRM-free iTunes Plus music on their computer. There's no technical reason why the music shouldn't be easily playable on the Pre. One of the upshots of removing DRM in the iTunes store is to facilitate device interoperability. Allow non-Apple devices to play iTunes music, and suddenly Apple has customers it didn't have before.

If Apple chooses to cut off just the Pre, and Palm is following the rules, Apple is unnecessarily cutting a stream of revenue. That's something I don't see Apple doing lightly.

Mr. J is either going to be ticked that Disney's new CEO Rober Iger leaked a much-speculated feature of the upcoming iTV, or it's a clever piece of marketing to which he gave a thumbs up in the first place. Regardless, thanks to the iPod Observer, we now know the iTV, Apple's upcoming AirPort-Express-for-your-TV device they previewed at the recent September 12th It's Showtime event, will sport a hard drive so users "can download what you put on the device on your computer, on your iTunes, through the television set" (perhaps he could used more rehearsing when leaking big stuff like this).

Now don't get ahead of yourselves - for a second there I too thought that "download what you put on the device on your computer" bit meant he was hinting the iTV might do DVR, but that wouldn't make any sense as it would cannibalize the TV shows and movies they sell in the iTS. Either way, stay tuned for more (hopefully less awkward) iTV detail leaks.

[via MacMinute]

Alright boys and girls, WWDC is less than a week away, rumors are flying and now: so are the images. This 'iChat Mobile' device could exist only in Photoshop for all we and Engadget know, but the possibilities sound pretty delicious. If you let your imagination run wild for just a little bit, however, even that slogan can sound like something Apple would produce.

Could this somehow tie into iChat itself, fulfilling so many of those VoIP + Leopard rumors that have been flying around? Might this also offer a true iTMS experience, packing iPod-nano sized memory, sans a song cap? Time will only tell if WWDC reveals anything about one of Apple's worst kept secrets as of late.

Alright: let the speculation continue!

iLounge has posted a review of Hitch, a sort of USB middle man device that allows transferring files between two USB devices, including iPods. The Hitch is apparently a little slow, taking 6 seconds to transfer a 4MB song, but hey: it beats needing a computer to do it if you're a chronic swapper borrower, or if you're getting into the 'I bought a new iPod and I need help to move over all my music' business.

There is one catch with the device specific to the Mac community though: it can't read HFS formatted iPods. Still, I figured this was worth posting, as not all of our readers are 100% Mac users all of the time (and yes, it's ok. We won't hold it against you). Plus, if we can help get the word out on such a handy device, maybe enough Mac users *ahem* could send an email to Sima Products, the Hitch's manufacturer, and make a request for some HFS love.