App Store to sell iTunes Remote for iPod Touch & iPhone

Any of you who watched the Application previews in the latest Keynote must be getting quite excited by now. I'm so glad I bought a 16GB iPod Touch - all that extra storage for apps. I can still amaze colleagues by showing them that my iPod can surf the net and do email; just wait 'til they see Super Monkey Ball. Yesterday a developer found something very interesting when snooping around the beta version of iTunes 7.7. He found out about an app that lets you use your iPhone or touch to control iTunes from anywhere within your hotspot. How good is that?! Well, it will certainly be useful to me as I have my iMac in a different room to my stereo and link the two through Airtunes on an Airport Express. It's an old Express which seems to overheat (as it did at a recent party) which meant the music kept cutting out (I must get a newer faster one). The Apple Remote that came with my iMac is useful, but quite basic. But I'm guessing the iPod remote would link-up with your iTunes library just like any other computer sharing your network. That way you'll be able to scroll through your tracks as if they were on your iPod. Well, I hope that's how it'll work. We'll just have to wait until the App Store opens it's doors on the 11th. The picture above is a Mock-up from the Mac User Website.

.Mac service deteriorates in run up to Mobile Me switchover

My websites, podcasts and webmail have all gone up the spout since Apple announced the new Mobile Me service. It better be worth the trouble, or else I may go and do something silly...like start using my 'free' Googlemail account instead.

Leaked PAYG iPhone Prices

They appeared on the O2 website for just a moment and then they were gone.
£300 for the 8GB iPhone and £360 for the 16GB and that will get you 6 months unlimited web access. After that's up you be paying £10 a month. See MacUser for the full story.

iPhone 3G ad online.

Is this scene from Ocean's 11?

'Snow Leopard' features revealed to developers

It didn't have a pointy teeth snarl, but all those at this week's WWDC will get a look at some of the new features of next version of Mac OS X.
Here's more blurb from the Apple PR machine:

SAN FRANCISCO—June 9, 2008—Apple® today previewed Mac OS® X Snow Leopard, which builds on the incredible success of OS X Leopard and is the next major version of the world’s most advanced operating system. Rather than focusing primarily on new features, Snow Leopard will enhance the performance of OS X, set a new standard for quality and lay the foundation for future OS X innovation. Snow Leopard is optimised for multi-core processors, taps into the vast computing power of graphic processing units (GPUs), enables breakthrough amounts of RAM and features a new, modern media platform with QuickTime® X. Snow Leopard includes out-of-the-box support for Microsoft Exchange 2007 and is scheduled to ship in about a year.

“We have delivered more than a thousand new features to OS X in just seven years and Snow Leopard lays the foundation for thousands more,” said Bertrand Serlet, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering. “In our continued effort to deliver the best user experience, we hit the pause button on new features to focus on perfecting the world’s most advanced operating system.”

Snow Leopard delivers unrivalled support for multi-core processors with a new technology code-named “Grand Central,” making it easy for developers to create programmes that take full advantage of the power of multi-core Macs. Snow Leopard further extends support for modern hardware with Open Computing Language (OpenCL), which lets any application tap into the vast gigaflops of GPU computing power previously available only to graphics applications. OpenCL is based on the C programming language and has been proposed as an open standard. Furthering OS X’s lead in 64-bit technology, Snow Leopard raises the software limit on system memory up to a theoretical 16TB of RAM.

Using media technology pioneered in OS X iPhone™, Snow Leopard introduces QuickTime X, which optimises support for modern audio and video formats resulting in extremely efficient media playback. Snow Leopard also includes Safari® with the fastest implementation of JavaScript ever, increasing performance by 53 percent, making Web 2.0 applications feel more responsive.*

For the first time, OS X includes native support for Microsoft Exchange 2007 in OS X applications Mail, iCal® and Address Book, making it even easier to integrate Macs into organisations of any size.

MobileMe replaces .Mac on the 11th July

Here's the details from the Apple PR email:

Apple Introduces MobileMe Internet Service

Push Email, Push Contacts and Push Calendar for iPhone, iPod touch, Macs and PCs

SAN FRANCISCO—June 9, 2008—Apple® today introduced MobileMe™, a new Internet service that delivers push email, push contacts and push calendars from the MobileMe service in the “cloud” to native applications on iPhone™, iPod® touch, Macs and PCs. MobileMe also provides a suite of elegant, ad-free web applications that deliver a desktop-like experience through any modern browser. MobileMe applications (www.me.com) include Mail, Contacts and Calendar, as well as Gallery for viewing and sharing photos and iDisk for storing and exchanging documents online.

“Think of MobileMe as ‘Exchange for the rest of us,’” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Now users who are not part of an enterprise that runs Exchange can get the same push email, push calendars and push contacts that the big guys get.”

With a MobileMe email account, all folders, messages and status indicators look identical whether checking email on iPhone, iPod touch, a Mac® or a PC. New email messages are pushed instantly to iPhone over the cellular network or Wi-Fi, removing the need to manually check email and wait for downloads. Push also keeps contacts and calendars continuously up-to-date so changes made on one device are automatically pushed up to the cloud and down to other devices. Push works with the native applications on iPhone and iPod touch, Microsoft Outlook for the PC, and Mac OS® X applications, Mail, Address Book and iCal®, as well as the MobileMe web application suite.

MobileMe web applications are 100 percent ad-free and provide an incredible, desktop-like experience that allows users to drag and drop, click and drag and even use keyboard shortcuts. MobileMe provides anywhere access to Mail, Contacts and Calendar, with a unified interface that allows users to switch between applications with a single click, and Gallery makes it easy to share photos on the web in stunning quality. Gallery users can upload, rearrange, rotate and title photos from any browser; post photos directly from an iPhone; allow visitors to download print quality images; and contribute photos to an album. MobileMe iDisk lets users store and manage files online with drag and drop filing and makes it easy to share documents too large to email by automatically sending an email with a link for downloading the file. MobileMe includes 20GB of online storage that can be used for email, contacts, calendar, photos, movies and documents.

Pricing & Availability
MobileMe, available on July 11, is a subscription-based service with 20GB of storage for £59 per year for individuals and £89 for a Family Pack, which includes one master account with 20GB of storage and four Family Member accounts with 5GB of storage each. Users can sign up for a free, 60-day MobileMe trial at www.apple.com/mobileme and current .Mac members will be automatically upgraded to MobileMe accounts. MobileMe subscribers can purchase an additional 20GB of storage for £30 or 40GB of storage for £59 annually.

Using an iPhone or iPod touch with MobileMe requires iPhone 2.0 software and iTunes® 7.7 or later. For use with a Mac, MobileMe requires Mac OS X Tiger 10.4.11 or the latest version of Mac OS X Leopard. For a PC, MobileMe requires Windows Vista or Windows XP Home or Professional (SP2), and Microsoft Outlook 2003 or later is recommended. MobileMe is accessible on the web via Safari® 3, Internet Explorer 7, and Firefox 2 or later. Internet access requires a compatible ISP; fees may apply. Broadband Internet connection recommended. Some features require Mac OS X Leopard and iLife® ’08, available separately.

O2 Announces free iPhone deal and PAYG deals

As always, a bit pricey: £40 if you want the 16GB for free and spend up to 3000 minutes a month on your phone (you'll know if you do by that huge tumour growing on the side of your head). But the minimum tarriff is cheaper but you get a paltry amount of minutes and texts. Early adoptors with a non 3G iPhone get a free upgrade if you sign their life away to another 18 months with O2.

The Pay As You Go price hasn't been announced yet but as a Sony Ericsson K850i currently costs £239.99, you can bet the iPhone'll be quite pricey.

New slimmer iPhone has 3G and GPS.

It also supports Microsoft Exchange for all you business users - so you can throw away your Crackberries. You can download new applications through the App Store. The look of the iPhone is pretty much the same except it now has a black plastic back and metal buttons. You can buy it here for £199 from 11th July.

.Mac to change to MobileMe service

TUAW have learnt that .mac will be no longer be available after the rumoured MobileMe service is launched. This should happen around the end of June/begining of July. Annoyingly, this means all .Mac members will be given a new email address ending in me.com. The new service brings .Mac up to date to sync 'throught the air' with the iPhone and to work more like Microsoft Exchange (for the business market).

Movies come to UK's iTunes Store

You can now rent or buy movies in iTunes. The prices differ for each film and you can probably buy the actual DVD of a film for cheaper in some cases. But the films are there when you need them, so think of the money and time you'll save trotting down to Blockbusters. And you don't have to rip them in Handbrake to watch them on your Mac or iPod (which is illegal anyway).

Coldpay opt for iTunes ad (again).

Didn't they do the same when they released X&Y?