Is Apple gunning for Exchange Server with the new iCal beta?
Well, our good friends over at The Cat Convention think so. According to the site, new evidence in the MobileMe beta is pointing towards Apple trying to get CalDAV, its preferred calendaring implementation, not only into the hands of MobileMe users, but Microsoft Outlook users as well.
Since CalDAV is the calendaring format of choice for Apple’s Snow Leopard Server, TCC is hypothesizing that this could be the first step toward Apple pushing its calendar into the enterprise workspace.
As a side note, this is what MY calendar currently looks like.
That’s right, nothing but DVD releases. How sad. But I’m sure some of you busier folks stuck in corporate America using Outlook might be excited by this rumor, so there you go.
Putting the latest Verizon iPhone rumor into perspective
Filed under: Cynicism, Rampant Speculation, Rumors, iPhone
Call me crazy, but I just can’t seem to get too excited about the latest Verizon iPhone rumor…
(headlines via MacRumors)
Sure, eventually someone’s going to be right… but can’t we just wait for an official announcement?
Conspiracy Theorists Unite!! The Black Helicopters Are Circling!!
Filed under: Apple Bashing, Apple Fanboyism, Cynicism, Rampant Speculation, Rumors, iPhone
Additive Tips is reporting that, (according to a “trusted source inside Apple”), Apple is now working with AT&T to check iOS 4 iPhones every 7-14 days or so via through OTA (over-the-air) updates to see if they’re jailbroken, and if so, it will relock them and place the users on a blacklist.
“How it works is every 7 to 14 days We (Apple) and AT&T send a message to your iPhone that gathers some data from your iPhone without you knowing and we see what is running, baseband and firmware. We then send a following message. “There are optional updates for your iPhone, Would you like to install them now?” two options “Yes” or “Later”. Those are what would would call “OPTIONAL UPDATES” Now there are things called “MANDATORY UPDATES”. They tend to work the same way, grab data from the iPhones sends it to AT&T and us then back to your iPhone with the message, “Your iPhone (name of iphone) must be updated to the current AT&T standards to run”, your only option is to “Accept” Now you can try to work your way around it until you get the second mandatory message again “You must plug iPhone into iTunes and update” If you don’t do this you will then receive no Signal from the network anymore and your iPhone will potentially lock up with no signs of use until you update your iPhone via iTunes. You all agreed to this terms and condition when you installed iTunes 9.2 and then again once you updated to iOS4. With that being Said go ahead Try to unlock the iPhone it will only last 14 days max…”
If true, this would be such a PR nightmare for both companies that I really can’t imagine anything worse for their public image. Oh wait, yes I can! According to the same source…
“Worst yet is once a person connects to another person on FaceTime it for some reason non of us in the office can figure out, sends us APPLE a message and says those two people are connecting via Facetime and gives out their location to us. So for whatever reason we need that information just blows my mind. As a consumer why would you need to let Apple know that you are connecting with a person via FaceTime, its non of Apple’s business.”
So, there you have it folks! iOS 4 is evil, Apple is evil, and AT&T is evil. (Well, there always is a LITTLE truth in every rumor).
[via TheNextWeb]
Screenshots of AutoCad for Mac surface – reportedly “Works like $#!%”
Our good friends over at TheAppleLounge have received some screenshots of a beta of AutoCad running on the Mac.
According to the user, the software “va una chiavica”, which loosely translates to “works like shit”. But it’s a very very early beta, so we predict by next month it will have progressed to working like crap.
Is ThinkSecret’s Nick DePlume looking to make a Mac Rumor comeback?
Filed under: Apple Fanboyism, Mac Celebs, Rampant Speculation, Rumors
ThinkSecret’s Nick DePlume, apparently at a very unpopular cafe.
It was just over two years ago that the infamous Mac Rumor site ThinkSecret was forced by Apple legal to shut its doors, presumably forever. However, it appears that TS founder Nick Ciarelli (aka Nick DePlume) now finds HIMSELF in the middle of a rumor – namely that he might be trying to get back into the Mac rumoring game. At least according to the popular Portuguese Mac site espacomac.com.
It seems the site’s founder, Ricardo Saraiva, was contacted this weekend by DePlume with regards to the Tiwtter account name “ThinkSecret, which Saraiva owns.
So what do we think? Is Nick looking to use the ThinkSecret twitter name to get his formidable rumor-mongering toe back into the Apple pool? Or is he simply being nostalgic? He does seem to be throwing the royal “we” around quite a bit in that e-mail, and reaffirms that “they” own the ThinkSecret name, somewhat implying it is still an active property.
One thing’s for sure, Nick hasn’t lost his edge. Saraiva claims it should not have been easy for Nick to find his e-mail address, yet it was apparently not a problem for DePlume.
Rumor roundup: iPad to ship March 43rd, HDMI coming to some Macs, Netflix coming to iPad/iPhone
I don’t normally comment on rumors, but I really can’t find anything else to wrtie about at the moment, so here’s my 2¢ on a couple of the latest rumors swirling around the interwebs.
iPad to ship March 43rd
Yes, the rumor mill is now predicting Apple will perhaps miss its March shipping deadline by a couple weeks. Apple has had more than a couple delays in shipping products in the past, and usually for big ones it pre-announces months in advance, so this would not be surprising. However I tend to agree with those who think the iPad will indeed begin “technically” shipping in March, with a very limited supply – although I would not rule out a scenario where Apple begins accepting online pre-orders in late March, for an April 8th delivery, just so that it FEELS Like they made their March deadline.
On a side note, how cool would it be if Apple stopped pre-announcing all their stuff 4 months before it shipped, and just one day you woke up, checked Apple.com, and saw there was something called an iPad, and it was available?
HDMI coming to some Macs
This rumor seems to particularly be attached to the Mac mini, and I can understand why it might be, as the Mac mini is really not good for anything other than being what the Apple TV SHOULD be, so it would make sense. But Apple only fairly recently began trying to force the mini dsiplay port down the world’s throat, and I think they still have about 2 years before they admit defeat. I would not entirely rule out that a new Mac mini ships with BOTH a mini display port and HDMI, but Apple seems to like its customers to buy adpaters, so I am not holding my breath on this one.
The upside to this rumor though, if true, might imply that the Apple TV would die, and the Mac mini would get a blu-ray drive, thus finally becoming something you can hook to your TV and replace a couple other gadgets. That is, assuming Apple either allows (or doesn’t purposely block) Netflix streaming from running.
Netflix streaming coming to iPad/iPhone
Speaking of Netflix, there is now a rumor of Netflix streaming coming to the iPhone/iPad, based on a new survey Netflix has sent out to gauge interest in such a thing. Even if you don’t have Netflix, an iPod touch, iPhone, or iPad, if you have a shred of decency, I implore you to take the survey and tell them YES WE WANT NETFLIX, if for no other reason than you know some lame tablet from HP or Toshiba or something is going to offer it and make us look bad. Plus I loves me my Mystery Science Theater re-runs on demand. A similar survey came out a few months back about PS3 Netflix demand, and we all know what happened there.
Some things are just so stupid that they’re awesome…
Filed under: Apple Fanboyism, Awesomeness, Humor, It's a joke, Photos, Rumors, That's Weird..., iPhone, iPod Touch, stupid, video
… and some things are just stupid.
I am somewhat on the fence here about the Retro TV Dinner Turkey Corn and Mash Potatoes Gadget Case for the iPhone/iTouch.
Sure, it seems like a good idea for a joke gift, but at $20 it rivals the cost of many “real” iPhone cases that a person might actually use. Now, if it looked like bacon, that would be different. But as it stands, there are simply too many carbs for me.
[etsy via TUAW's twitter]
Reasonable-looking Apple tablet pics surface
Filed under: Apple Fanboyism, Photos, Rampant Speculation, Rumors
As usual, pics of Apple’s top secret device have surfaced exactly 4 hours before the official unveiling. An Engadget tipster has sent out what appear to be pretty convincing shots of an Apple Tablet-like device, bolted to a table (presumably to prevent this sneaky shutterbug from stealing it outright).
Note the front-facing camera, and “no carrier” label at the top, in line with rumors of a Verizon wireless contract and video chat. Four more hours…
Repair site already offering to repair your 4G iPhone
Filed under: News, Rampant Speculation, Rumors, That's Weird..., iPhone
While conventional wisdom tells us we’re still 5 months away from the next iPhone, that hasn’t stopped iPhone repair site Mission:Repair from announcing it is ready to fix your broken 4G iPhone.
“4G iPhone Repair and Upgrades! Are you looking for a 4G iPhone repair service? You’ve come to the right place. “
Apparently Mission:Repair is hoping there’re some early iPhone 4G beta testers out there with a case of the butter-fingers looking to get theirs repaired before the folks at Apple find out.
Thanks to faithful Macenstein reader Matthew for the tip!
iSlate to run 10.7 “Clouded Leopard” OS? OF COURSE! It all makes sense now!!
Filed under: Apple Fanboyism, Cynicism, OS X, Opinion, Rampant Speculation, Rumors
OK, as with all unconfirmed (and likely 99% 110% fake) iSlate rumors, take this with a grain of whatever condiment you’d like, but faithful Macenstein reader imalk noticed this picture show up on Gizmodo for all of 20 seconds before being pulled.
Now, we assume Giz pulled it because they feel it is so fake it isn’t even worth trying to get hits off of, but we’re not so proud. And quite frankly, while I do not personally believe it to be a legit leak, I would not be surprised if most specs of the iSlate end up being not all that far off (although I would have said Flash memory vs. an actual hard drive… and no Ethernet… and no way the internal memory goes to 8 GB… and no projector (WTF? A Projector?!?)). Well, as wacky as this spec sheet is, it really only loses total credibility for me towards the end, where it mentions the iSlate will be running “Mac OS X 10.7 Clouded Leopard”.
Now, while a clouded leopard is in fact an actual, real-life honest to goodness type of cat, and it would be pretty impressive if Apple had always planned to use the clouded leopard as the “cloud computing” evolution of Mac OS, it just seems a bit crazy at this point for Apple to be making the jump to cloud computing. I’m not even skeptical from a “10.6 only came out a few months ago” standpoint (after all, Snow Leopard didn’t exactly bring a ton of new features or anything) but cloud computing still seems like the type of thing people like to pretend will be great more than something that will in fact BE great.
But hey, it’s an extremely slow news month, so here you go.
