This sounds an awful lot like sour grapes to me: Ray Ozzie, Microsoft's chief software engineer, told a Professional Developers' Conference earlier this week that it wasn't the apps that would make or break the smartphone platforms. Of course, that's what most press and blog outlets seem to be focusing on (maybe because we all already know what the hardware is like -- apps change every day if not every minute, and the hardware only changes occasionally), but Ozzie says customers won't buy a phone for the apps. The biggest apps, he says, will eventually be available on every platform. To put it in as few words as possible, you'll be able to tweet from everything in the future.

And he's got part of a good point there: it's true, the major functionality of "killer apps" will be available across platforms. But Ozzie forgets (or is just ignoring) that that's already the case on desktops. While yes, you could claim that porting to the various smartphones is easier than porting to the various PC platforms, that doesn't avoid the fact that I can tweet, IM, email, browse, edit photos and movies, and do whatever else I want on both platforms as well. And for some reason (ahem, the hardware and the way both software and hardware are designed), I'd rather do them on the Mac. People love their iPhones not just for the apps but for the way it fits in their hand, and how just plain slick it is.

That's not to say that the smartphone platform war is over -- no way, it's only beginning, and we consumers will take innovative ideas wherever we can get them. But Ozzie saying the apps don't count (and echoing his fellow Microsofters in trying to separate Apple from their software strategy) seems to mean that even he thinks he's already lost that race -- they certainly do play a large part in which platform consumers eventually choose.

People have had their chances to put their grubby hands on those "incredible" iMacs that got released a few weeks ago, and the results are in. And they're great, apparently. First up, MacRumors has a collection of a few sets of benchmarks on the new machines, and the Core i7 processor (a $200 upgrade from the still very powerful Core i5) especially kicks up the speed to a place where it's competing with even the Mac Pro. In fact, in the second comparison, when pitted up against the single CPU Mac Pro, the iMac is virtually identical. Not only is it slightly cheaper depending on options, but you get that nice monitor for free.

Electronista has a much more qualitative analysis, but they still love the new machine. Their "biggest" problem (aside from the usual complaints about the glossy screen and a lack of easy-to-reach ports) seems to be just the size of it. The 27" iMac is a big machine no matter how thin it gets. But they agree: with the i7 in there and all of the extra options, the iMac is a monster, matching up to the Mac Pros sitting in the lower atmosphere.

Good stuff. I'm not personally in the market for a new computer, but man -- if I was ready to spend $2000 on a quality machine, it's tough to consider anything else a better purchase than the new iMac.

UPDATE: Chart graphic is from Timon Royer, we regret the omission.

It's now safe to shop for Apple products without fear of getting burned by a last-minute release, at least for the next few months. Apple's senior VP of Worldwide Product Marketing, Phil Schiller, told Gizmodo today that "... the holiday lineup is set." Apple typically does this in late autumn to simply let customers know that it's safe to start spending money.

Gizmodo notes that they originally stated, "No more Apple products this year," but they subsequently received a call from Apple asking (by "asking" we mean "telling" ) them to use the language, "The holiday lineup is set." Conspiracy theorists will say that means there could be new stuff still in the pipe, but we think it's just meant to get people in a shopping mood.

[Via The Loop]

You know by now that once Apple announces a new piece of hardware, it's only a matter of time before someone gets their hands on one only to rip it up and tear every little piece out to see what's in there. And that's exactly what iFixit did with the brand new iMac -- most of us would kill to get one and keep it, and they got one and killed it (Update: Apparently they didn't kill it -- they ended up putting it all back together again). But at least we can learn from their destruction: the LCD panel is the same horizontal resolution as the 30" Cinema display, and the screen itself weighs 11 lbs. The hard drive sits right in the center of the machine, right behind the screen. And there's probably more heat dissipation methods in there than you'd expect: six temp sensors, three fans, two heat sinks, and even a partridge in a pear tree. We're not sure how that last one helps.

Overall, it's a beauty. And the last twist is probably the most interesting -- other than showing off your Mac-itude and lighting the area behind your screen, the Apple logo is apparently wrapped with an Airport antenna. Because the whole thing is encased in aluminum, that's the only place to get a signal, and so that's where they stuck it. Now when people complain that you're just being trendy by showing off the Apple logo, you can tell them you're actually just trying to help out the Wi-Fi reception.

[via Engadget]

Out with the old, in with the new. This week's hardware releases were met with new additions to Apple's vintage and obsolete hardware lists. The following have been added, and I'm sad to say that I'm still using the Dual Ethernet Airport Base Station:

• iBook G4 (Early 2004)
• iBook G4 (14" Early 2004)
• eMac (USB 2.0)
• Apple Cinema Display ADC
• Apple Studio Display 15" ADC
• Apple Studio Display 17" LCD
• Apple Studio Display 17" ADC
• Power Mac G4 (QuickSilver 2002)
• Macintosh Server G4 (QuickSilver 2002)
• PowerBook G4 (DVI)
• iBook (14.1 LCD 16 VRAM)
• iBook (16 VRAM)
• AirPort Base Station (Dual Ethernet)

I've also got a 20" G4 iMac and my wife uses at 14" iBook, both of which were previously added to the list. Supported or not, they're still useful -- check out this Macintosh Classic being used as a window display.

Back in 1994 my employer had several SE/30's connected via LocalTalk, and we thought that was the baddest thing on the planet. Not to mention late-night games of Maelstrom and Glider Pro. Oh, memories.

[Via HardMac]

Steve Sande actually did a brilliant job of explaining just why the Mac mini is so awesome the other day (and we've certainly had our share of mini-love here on the site before), but this is worth a read as well if you're interested in Apple's littlest Mac. Macminicolo, the very company that Steve lauds in his piece for colocating mini servers for a while now, has posted a "state of the mini" piece, complete with unboxing of the new mini server, pictures of its guts and how they all work together. If you've ever wondered why the mini is such a marvel of desktop OS X-ness, check out their writeup (and drool at the beautiful setup above -- so many minis!).

There are a few good things to take away from the big release this week -- while Steve is exactly right that releasing a mini server means Apple is getting on the server bandwagon, it also means that Apple is officially on the mini bandwagon. When these machines were first released, they were marketed as a switchers' computer -- bring your own mouse and monitor, and we'll show you what being on a Mac is like at a fraction of the cost. Frankly, they never shined at that purpose, prompting many people to proclaim death sentences for the little machine that could. But by releasing a server, Apple's saying, "we get it." They get that the mini is much more of a workhorse than it appears (or was meant) to be. In my mind, that's a whole new lease on life -- the mini may have never made much of a splash as a switchers' computer, but it's got a long future as a tiny but powerful computer you can use for all sorts of things.

[via DF]

Users have a love/hate relationship with Apple's glossy displays. Namely, they either love them or they hate them. I haven't used one myself, as I'll be hanging on to my original MacBook Pro until it ceases to work.

Until now, shoppers could get either a glossy or matte display with the 15" MacBook Pro, but not the 13" model. TechRestore has stepped in to do the "repair." For $200, they'll remove your 13" MacBook or MacBook Pro's glossy display and slap a matte screen in its place. The work comes with a 1-year warranty and TechRestore says they'll have your precious back to you within 24 hours of receipt. Note that this requires a trade-in of your existing screen; you won't get it back.

If you have this service done, please let us know how it goes. Enjoy your glare-free computing!

For comparison, RadTech sells an anti-glare film that can be applied over a glossy display. They're available for the 13in MacBook/Pro (unibody), the 15in MacBook Pro (unibody), the 17in MacBook Pro (unibody) and various iMacs. You can get the full list here. The films start at $19.95US each.

[Via Cult Of Mac]

Another Friday Favorite, our weekly opportunity to gush over one of our favorite apps.

This week's favorite is a must-have reference for all Apple fans. Mactracker has been around for as long as I can remember and is indispensable. It provides exhaustive information on every Apple product, from the latest Xserve to the QuickTake 100.

The iTunes-like UI keeps machines in categories like desktops, notebooks, devices, etc. Click any to reveal a chronological listing of hardware, sorted by folder. Finally, select any piece of hardware (or software) to receive a tremendous amount of information. Processor, RAM, release date, benchmarks and on and on. You can even listen to the startup chime where applicable.

You can make smart folders and even keep track of the hardware you own. I love the built-in timeline, which lets you browse hardware by year of introduction. Best of all, as new hardware is added, Mactracker is updated.

This great piece of freewawre is availabe for the Mac and iPhone/iPod touch [App Store link]. For me, it's indispensable.

Get your mind out of the gutter! I'm talking about the Quicky Jr II USB wireless signal booster, which is a little USB dongle / antenna that plugs into a USB port on any Mac that is running Mac OS X 10.4 or newer. This little device, from QuickerTek, purports to let you wander up to three times the distance you normally can, and still receive a nice, strong, and encrypted wireless signal.

The US$89.95 Quicky Jr II comes with an easily-installed USB driver that lets it work with your 802.11n/g/b networks, including those that are powered by an AirPort Extreme Base Station. While I'm usually dubious of any device that claims to increase wireless range unless it is pitched by the late, great Billy Mays, the Quicky Jr II appears to be just what it says it is; a powered USB Wi-Fi antenna. In theory the larger antenna size and a built-in USB-powered amplifier could help boost the signal, then route it to your AirPort circuitry.

Rather than speculate on how well devices like this work, I'd like to ask our readers. Do you have any experience with this or similar products? Do they work as advertised? TUAW wants to know.

While the iPhone, iPod and laptops get most of the glory, the Mac mini chugs quietly along, doing its job well and making owners happy. Earlier at my day job, I was working with one of our minis and recognized how I rely on it to perform a critical function without the slightest hesitation. In other words, it's time to give the little guy some recognition.

When I'm not blogging for you folks, I'm managing the web presence and other tech goodies of a large museum here in balmy Massachusetts. When customers arrive in our lobby, they can view a slide show of what's new via a gorgeous HDTV hung above the ticket counter. Behind the HDTV is a Mac mini running Keynote. Once a week, the art department sends an updated Keynote presentation to the mini via Dropbox. This simple and reliable system is powered by an Intel-based mini.

Here's the best part. Before our guests move on to the exhibits, they view a brief orientation film and slide show that displays sponsor information. Thousands of people watch both the orientation movie and slideshow every week. Behind it all is a G4 Mac mini (pictured on the right*).

This machine has been absolutely rock solid. Again, the art department uploads new slide shows to it via Dropbox and the whole operation couldn't be simpler. When I look at the Laptop Hunter ads, and I see Lauren squealing over her Dell, I think, "Would I trust that machine to do what this mini does when it's 4 or 5 years old? Heck, no." The G4 in question is stock from the factory. Plus, if its HD croaks tomorrow, the only critical bit of data -- the slide show and movie -- lives on Dropbox so we're covered. In a pinch, we've got a Mac Pro that could take on the workload in under 10 minutes.

In a world where the new and shiny gets most of the attention, the plain and reliable is often overlooked. So here's a post to praise the Mac mini. The tiny, go-anywhere, do-anything, ultra-reliable computer that I absolutely love. No wonder there are racks full of them at Macminicolo and other facilities.

Now I'm certain there are others out there with dutiful minis. Home servers, media centers, carputers, etc. If that's you, send a snapshot to Flickr and tag it TUAWmini. We'll post some of our favorites this weekend.

*No, it doesn't live on the floor. I moved it to compose the shot. Rest assured that it was returned to its cozy shelf immediately after.

See, now this is the kind of game I want from my iPhone -- the accelerometer isn't just a gimmick thrown in with the gameplay, it's the actual premise of the game. Diorama is a weird little Marble Madness-style maze game, but the catch here is that instead of just tilting the accelerometer to move the ball (which you do), the level of the game actually moves with you, so that you get a stereoscopic kind of effect, as if the stage is real inside your iPhone's screen. Tough to explain, but as soon as you see it above, you'll know what it's like. We've seen this kind of effect before in apps like MotionX's Dice roller, but in this case, it's actually part of the game -- you can only find the paths to take around the stages by actually tilting the device. And for extra 3D viewing, there's an actual 3D mode, so if you happen to have red and cyan glasses around, you can switch on the mode for anaglyphic 3D.

The app is the first iPhone release from a company called Drömsynt, and though the initial reports on iTunes say the game is pretty tough (it is a pain navigating the quickly-moving ball around those pathways), for just 99 cents, it's definitely worth downloading, if only to see how it works. So many apps just throw in a few iPhone-specific features as afterthoughts, but it's refreshing to see a game like this (or like Zen Bound, which really depends on the multitouch screen) rely on the originality of the hardware itself.

We're back with another edition of Ask TUAW. This time around we've answering questions about how to resize windows too big for the screen, "compulsive" updating, booting from an SD card, Open GL in Snow Leopard, and more.

As always, your suggestions and questions are welcome. Questions for next week should be left in the comments. When asking a question please include which machine you're running and which version of Mac OS X (we'll assume you're running Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify). And now, on to the questions.

Steph asks:

I recently switched from an iMac to a MacBook Pro and now many of my windows are sized to big for the screen of my laptop. I can't reach the corner to resize them and clicking the "Plus" sign in the corner doesn't help. What can I do?

Fortunately, this is very easy to fix. Instead of clicking on the "Plus" sign (the green button) in the top left corner of the window you are trying to resize, Option-click it and the window will fill your new screen size instead.

John asks:

I realize there's a method for updating Mac OSX all the time and sometimes I get the window popping up saying I have updates. Should I always update immedietly when it tells me I have some?

What makes up a rumor? The common recipe starts with some truth or factual information, adds a healthy dose of hearsay, and then gets topped off with a 'pinch of this and a dash of that.' Then someone else starts with that entire rumor as their 'factual information', and adds to it from there. Pretty soon, you've got 100 different flavors in the wild, and some of them don't even taste remotely like the original dish.

The recent storm of rumors surrounding the iPhone 3G S turned out exactly the same way. Several of them shared some common elements, such as a better camera, video editing, and a compass. But beyond that, the features were anyone's guess, especially when it came to the physical appearance of the device. When Apple broke the news that the appearance was identical to the existing 3G, I really had to wonder: how many times have we seen someone using the new iPhone, and not even noticed?

And then there was the name: iPhone Video, or iPhone 3GS? Just plain 'iPhone'? Whatever the case, it is a given that the name would reflect one of the most important aspects of the device. After all, the iPhone 3G takes its name from its 3G radio, and the 4th-generationsorry, 5th or 5.5 gen iPod were oft referred to as the "iPod Video" due to their video capabilities. So it stood to reason that if the most obvious feature of the new phone would be video recording (and possibly editing) capabilities, it could easily be called the 'iPhone Video'.

What is interesting, though, is that Apple instead chose to name it 'iPhone 3G S', stating that the 'S' stands for faster speed. But even a quick perusal of the specs on Apple's website will tell you that speed is far from the only improvement over the original 3G. Of course, there are the obvious features that Apple pointed out: video recording & editing, an auto-focus camera, voice control and dialing, and a digital compass, just to name a few. But what about all the other features listed on the website. How do they compare to the iPhone 3G?

Read on for a head-to-head comparison of the new features...

As Jason Snell points out at Macworld, Apple doesn't want people thinking of the iPhone as a computer. At least, not the way geeks like you and I do. As iPhone product marketing manager Bob Borchers told Jason, "...it's just faster, better, quicker, snappier, and a great experience."

Apple doesn't want us worrying about the "how," but many of us do, which is why we're interested in a blurb at T Mobile's Netherlands site which lists the iPhone 3G S as having 256MB RAM and a 600 MHz processor. Of course, we can't verify these specs yet but some have suspected, including myself, that the new model would hold 256MB RAM.

I understand the logic behind Apple's move. John Q. Customer is uninterested in the iPhone's innards and cares only that it works. For many, terms like processor, RAM and MHz only make the thing sound complicated and foreign.

Geeks like us, however, can't resist.

[Via MacDailyNews]

For those of you avoiding the whole WWDC live-blogging sensation that's going on throughout the web, here's a little tidbit of information you may not yet know. Apple announced the immediate availability of a largely-refreshed MacBook line. New models include a refreshed 15" MacBook Pro, a new (actually refreshed) 13" MacBook Pro, and an updated MacBook Air.

If you'll recall the 17" MacBook Pro has a fairly handsome battery that is built-in, recharges 1,000 times and lasts for 7 hours. That same battery can now be found in the 15" MacBook Pro and the 13" MacBook Pro. Apparently Apple really has a beef against user-replaceable batteries. But if they don't require recharging every 3 1/2 hours or die completely in 2 years, this may not be a bad thing.

The 15" and 13" MacBook Pros now feature an SD card slot to be replacing the ExpressCard slot of yore. Personally, I have never found a use for the ExpressCard slot but I imagine those with mobile data packages will be less than stunned. For the Firewire crowd there's some good news, the 13" MacBook Pro now has FireWire (again) so we can all put our pitchforks down.

The 15" MacBook Pro now starts at $1,699US featuring the 2.53GHZ Core 2 Duo and GeForce 9400 graphics only. Step-up models priced at $1,999 and $2,299 feature the 9400M and 9600M GT combo.

• $1,699US: 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB DDR3 RAM, GeForce 9400M graphics, 250GB HDD
  
• $1,999US: 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB DDR3 RAM, GeForce 9400M + 9600M GT graphics, 320GB
  
• $2,299US: 2.80GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB DDR3 RAM, GeForce 9400M + 9600M GT graphics, 500GB HDD

The 13" MacBook Pro is essentially a re-badged unibody MacBook but now featuring an SD card slot, Firewire, and the 7-hour battery hotness The new 13" MBP can be had with hard drives up to 500GB in capacity and RAM sizes up to 8GB. It didn't take long for the aluminum 13-incher to best its white sibling.

• $1,199US: 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB DDR3 RAM, GeForce 9400M graphics, 160GB HDD
• $1,499US: 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB DDR3 RAM, GeForce 9400M graphics, 250GB HDD

The MacBook Air has also received a little love in terms of specs increase and price decrease:

• $1,499US: 1.86GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB DDR3 RAM, GeForce 9400M graphics, 120GB HDD
• $1,799US: 2.13GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB DDR3 RAM, GeForce 9400M graphics, 128GB SSD