Apple opened its first Chinese store last Friday, just in time for the opening of the Olympic Games on August 8th. Unlike their counterparts in London, the queuers didn't appear to need chairs for comfort, but umbrellas were useful for keeping the heat at bay.
According to our tipster in Beijing, the store sells all Apple products except iPhones, which have not yet been officially launched there yet.
Chris Evers also took some pictures of the opening, which you can see on a MobileMe gallery here.
UPDATE: That MobileMe photo gallery appears to be unavailable right now. We'll leave the link in place in the hope that it comes back up soon. Thanks to the commenters who alerted us to the breakage. Thanks to Zach Honig for the tip and the main photo.
Missing iCards? Well, SodaSnap hopes to fill the missing hole with their postcards for the iPhone. "SodaSnap Instant Postcards" is a a free application that does just that: creates postcards on-the-go.
Just shoot a picture with your iPhone and SodaSnap lets you send it off as an e-mail postcard. You can choose a picture that is saved in your "Photos" library which allow folks with an iPod touch in on the fun.
The best part of this iPhone application is that it just works, all without creating a pesky account with some company you've never heard of. That being said, your message is clearly passed through SodaSnap's servers, so you might want to be careful of what you write (such as personal information, etc.). SodaSnap provides great access to the address book for picking recipients. Overall, this is a fun application and the results are pretty good for a free application.
SodaSnap Instant Postcards is a free download from the iTunes App Store. Get a detailed look at SodaSnap before downloading by looking at our gallery of screenshots.
TUAW reader Gabriel Moore runs an Apple Certified Sales and Service store called Computer Evolution in Davenport, IA. He sent us a short note and link to a MobileMe Web Gallery with several pictures of a strange, Apple-labeled wooden box (picture above).
Gabriel writes "One of our customers noticed that we have a small collection of Old Macs in my service department and thought That he would give me something to add to the collection... Problem is I have no idea what it is or why it has the Apple name. Is this an after market fan boy box or a real product from Apple Computer? Any help from the readers or you would be awesome."
It looks like the 1980's Apple logotype, but I don't remember seeing a box like this anywhere. It's small enough that it could only contain something like an Apple IIc. Do any of you wonderful TUAW readers know what this box was used for? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
BoyGeniusReport (BGR) somehow managed to get their hands on the new iPhone 3G a little earlier than anyone else. They have uploaded several high-quality pictures to show the comparisons between the 1st generation iPhone and the iPhone 3G.
In addition, Paul Thurrott posted some iPhone 2.0 firmware upgrade screenshots to show the upgrade process and some of the new iTunes 7.7 and iPhone 2.0 features.
Sometimes I see the name of a new piece of software that someone tips us off to, and the name conjures up something completely different from what the reality is.
PhotoTiles, for instance, brought to mind the ability to create those cool pictures that are made up of all of your other photos. You know, like having a TUAW Logo that is made up of 2,500 thumbnail pictures that are chosen for their hue and intensity, then placed in the proper location.
Well, PhotoTile doesn't exactly do that, but this small program from Limit Point Software is a handy utility. Instead of doing what I imagined, it basically takes a folder of image and turns that into one grid-like "über-image."
For example, I took my Photo Booth folder, added a TUAW logo to round up to an even number of pictures, and dragged it onto PhotoTile. In a few seconds, it created the image that you see at right.
This is great for creating contact sheets of photos. PhotoTiles is donation-ware. If you use it, make a donation and you'll get an unlock code that unlocks all utilities from Limit Point Software including PhotoTiles.
Positive Spin Media's media search tool, Pandora (formerly NetScrape) has been bumped up to version 2.3. The new version primarily fixes some issues that Pandora had with reading some pages with non-English languages or encoding. The update is free to registered users, and you can download the update today.
If you haven't seen Pandora before, it's worth a look. Pandora uses a plug-in architecture to wander the big image search engines (i.e., Google and Flickr) or your hard drive, and supports finding and fetching any type of media -- not just images. Once you've found the media, Pandora provides easy slide show creation so you can show it off. I like the fact that you can start off multiple searches simultaneously and have them run
The Pandora demo is limited to 50 image viewings, and if you love it you can buy it for $29.95.
The folks at iLounge provided us with a link to real photos of a 3G iPhone body, along with commentary on the new design. It's refreshing to finally see actual photos of the new iPhone instead of badly Photoshopped mockups.
One close-up of the back of the black 3G iPhone shows that the material being used for the shell picks up very visible smudges and fingerprints, with the suggestion from Jeremy Horwitz that this may end up making the white model much more popular.
The iLounge article speculates that a Product (RED) 3G iPhone may be available in late 2008 or early 2009. If you're wondering if your current iPhone case or accessories will work with the the new device, Horwitz feels that products that are designed to work for either existing iPhones or iPod Touch should be fine. However, docks, cases, and other accessories that were designed only for the first generation iPhone will not work.
I, for one, am happy to see that Apple is making sure the iPhone / iPod economy continues to thrive!
Photon, the speedy digital photo workflow app and labor of love from Mike Bernardo's Green Volcano Software, has been updated to v1.1.
Photon differs from Aperture, Photoshop, and the like by focusing on the front end of the photography workflow. Importing RAW images from DSLRs is fast, and Photon's stacking feature simplifies sorting and culling your photos. The update includes:
An overhauled caching engine to improve import speed and responsiveness
A "Discards" stack for unwanted image files that provides a direct route to Trash
A "File stack" feature for moving existing files to a new spot on your hard drive(s)
Improved memory card download performance
The ability to save and recall stacks when re-launching the app.
The update is free to registered Photon users, or you can buy Photon for $69 (Universal Binary). Thanks to Mike B. for the tip!
As usual, we have no idea if this is the real thing, a prototype, or just a little Photoshop fakery. The most obvious difference between what Engadget saw first and what's posted here is the color on the back, but then again, why wouldn't Apple release iPhones in different colors? They've certainly done that with iPods.
None of this guarantees anything, but I will say that if I was shopping for an iPhone, the AT&T memo would be enough for me to hold off on a purchase until mid-June at least. There is an iPhone update storm coming, and the thunder and lightning seem to be getting closer together.
I'm often impressed by the photos I get out of my little iPhone. It's not a pro-level DSLR for sure, but for quick, off-the-cuff snapshots, it does a very good job.
I'm not alone in my belief. Computerworld's analysis of current Flickr Data shows that the iPhone is their most popular camera phone. Part of that is the novelty of the iPhone, undoubtedly. Owners continue to relish any excuse to whip them out.
The other is ease of posting a photo to Flickr. Once you've added your special Flickr email address to your contact list, sharing a photo is a snap. Tap it once, tap "Email photo," enter the first few letters of your Flickr email address and hit Send. Done.
While we're on the subject, I'll offer my tip for taking decent iPhone photos. Unlike nearly every other camera ever made, the iPhone exposes an image when the "shutter button" is released, not depressed. With that in mind, here's the three step process I follow
Press and hold the "shutter button"
Compose the shot
Release
The tendency is to compose the shot and then tap the button, often resulting in blur. Try this method and watch the results.
Is your laptop not among those that can do Multi-touch? Don't feel badly, you can replicate those great features!
Well, kind of. First, open an image with Quick Look. Next, hold down the Option key while performing a two-finger scroll. The image zooms in and out!
Finally, let go of the Option key but keep your fingers in place on your trackpad. The cursor turns into a four-point directional, and then you can pan the image within the Quick Look window.
This also works with a mouse and scrollwheel. Thanks, Max!
In the transition from iLife '06 to '08, one of the shifts in iPhoto functionality was the deprecation of photocasts in favor of .Mac web galleries. Sure, your friends and family can still subscribe to an RSS feed of your pictures (and what kind of loving grandparent doesn't want a newsfeed full of Halloween costumes and messy-breakfast snapshots?), but despite the enhanced gallery views in '08, some key features didn't roll forward -- in particular, while '06 photocasts could include original size, full-res picture files for downloaders, '08 web galleries downsized and/or recompressed most photos. Some may not have noticed the degradation in quality, but for the photo purists, including my colleague Jeff L., this was not an improvement.
Today Jeff came by my desk practically jumping for joy. Tucked away in yesterday's iPhoto update to 7.1.2, where you'd least expect it, is a slender button on the web gallery dialog box: "Show Advanced," and we all know that means good things for Jeff and his poor pictures. There are two new options in the Advanced section: a checkbox to hide the title of the gallery on your .Mac galleries page (handy for those who have a photography 'hobby,' nudge nudge say no more), and a choice between optimized and actual-size photos for downloading. Huzzah!
If you've got a web gallery that could benefit from higher-quality download files, try the new setting and let us know your results.
ECCE TERRAM announced a new service this week that will allow people to order prints of photos stored on their iPhones from the phones themselves. With their Photo2lab Client, users may select a photo (both those taken with the iPhone and those transfered from iPhoto), add text and create prints, post cards and even mini photo books. You'll even be able to add an address to a post card from the iPhone's built-in contacts list.
This sounds great, and ECCE TERRAM says it will be available just after the iPhone's SDK is released in February.
Some critics scoff at the notion that as many as 30% of all iPhones are being used in countries without an official carrier agreement. Just from our own reader comments/reports (and dim-witted criminals) we have no problem with the plausibility of those figures. One thing is for certain, plenty of people outside the officially contracted countries have and are using iPhones. And we want pictures!
Reader Jim wrote to us with this suggestion, and we think it's just great. So, here's the deal - if you live in a country where the iPhone is not officially available (or you are visiting one of those countries) and you spot someone using an iPhone, take a picture. If you are a non-carrier iPhone owner yourself, we want your pictures too! We would like to see shots that at least somewhat indicative of their geographical location -- just so we can answer any of the nay-sayers who try to claim the photos are fake.
Send your pictures to photos AT tuaw.com and we'll post up a gallery of the submissions. I think it will be interesting to see how many places the iPhone has traveled, even without an official contract.
Now that you have downed the Egg Nog and feasted on the holiday food, it's time for the worst part of Christmas ... importing and organizing all those photos. Thanks to Automator and iPhoto, this task can be extremely easy. In this how-to, I will show you how to import your photos, carefully tuck them away in a new photo album, and e-mail them to friends and family. This tutorial assumes that you are using Mac OS X Leopard, and iPhoto 08; however it may work with Tiger and iPhoto 06.
Missing 
Sometimes I see the name of a new piece of software that someone tips us off to, and the name conjures up something completely different from what the reality is. 
The folks at 
I'm often impressed by the photos I get out of my little iPhone. It's not a pro-level DSLR for sure, but for quick, off-the-cuff snapshots, it does a very good job.
Is your laptop not among those that can do Multi-touch? Don't feel badly, you can replicate those great features!
ECCE TERRAM announced a new service this week that will allow people to order prints of photos stored on their iPhones from the phones themselves. With their 
Some critics scoff at the notion that as many as 
Now that you have downed the Egg Nog and feasted on the holiday food, it's time for the worst part of Christmas ... importing and organizing all those photos. Thanks to Automator and iPhoto, this task can be extremely easy. In this how-to, I will show you how to import your photos, carefully tuck them away in a new photo album, and e-mail them to friends and family. This tutorial assumes that you are using Mac OS X Leopard, and iPhoto 08; however it may work with Tiger and iPhoto 06.
