If you watched the Keynote Address, for WWDC 2008, you may have noticed something a little different about the Apple founder. Jobs appeared to look as though he lost quite a bit of weight since his keynote at Macworld 2007.  Big news sites such as Drudge Report and The Wall Street Journal reported the story which gained the notice of Apple.

A spokesperson for the company, based in Cupertino, California, noted that Jobs had been affected by a ‘common bug’ which caused his big loss in weight.  If you remember, Jobs suffered from a very rare form of pancreatic cancer, which he had removed in a successful surgery.  You may also remember that Apple didn’t disclose this information about Jobs’ health issues until after the surgery was deemed as effective.

I feel that without Jobs Apple will become a company that would focus more on making money and less on providing the world with innovative products.  All of our thoughts and prayers go out to Jobs and we hope that he is doing well!

written by Councillor Wes \\ tags: Steve Jobs

Looks like there are more 3G iPhone rumors floating around. Lets have some fun with them. While there are no pictures of the device, the sources are MacRumors, and The Cult of Mac, 2 well known and trusted sources… But as always, these are rumors so I’ll believe them when I see them.

The first rumor is that the new iPhone will be lighter than the current model. No details on how much lighter. Probably a few grams here and there will be shaved off. The new model is apparently 22% thinner than the original… Can’t wait to see what that looks and feels like in my hand.

Second, the 3G iPhone will be available in many colors. This one has been going around for a bit now, so I’m not too surprised to hear this re-hashed again.

Also worthy of note are new rumors that the 3G iPhone will have a focus on Multimedia, with video recording and video conferencing capabilities. Perhaps iChat will debut on the device this time around? Mobile video conferencing… interesting…

GPS will of course be built-in, as that has been a long-awaited and wanted feature since the original iPhone launch.

As far as pricing is concerned look for a 16GB version to be priced at $499 and a 32GB to come in at $699.

As usual, I post these rumors for interest and discussion only. Don’t read them as the gospel, as they could very well be wrong… But I would certainly expect most of these rumors to be on the money. Look for the details to be spilled at the WWDC keynote next week by his Steve-ness.

What do you think?

[via MacRumors]

written by Mr. Mayor \\ tags: 3G iPhone, iPhone Rumors

Happy June everyone! We took a well deserved day off around here at Mactropolis. Thankfully the weather co-operated… just popped back into the office to see what was up and this story caught my eye.

Rumors have been going back and forth this past week about upcoming changes to the .Mac service. One rumor in particular is the potential renaming of the service. It seems that the leading candidate for the .Mac rename is now ‘MobileMe’, with Me.com being the home domain for the service.

Why? Well it seems that the domain name has been registered to the MarkMonitor domain service. MarkMonitor is a leader in enterprise brand protection. Apple and a whole bunch of other Fortune 100 companies have leaned on this service for brand protection in the past. So, with that said, it could be Apple is now sitting on the domain, getting ready for the rename… Or this is just complete hogwash, and some other company has registered the domain and is going to use it for something else.

Interestingly enough, MarkMonitor purchased MacBookAir.net, MacBookAir.org, MacBookAir.us, MacBookAir.info and MacBookAir.biz earlier this year on behalf of Apple.

If you try and hit up www.me.com, you’ll notice a redirect page that guides you to www.snappville.com, a social networking website that used to be called me.com until it changed its name in December of last year. Could it be Apple bought out the domain name and asked them to relocate to a new domain name? And with a ‘grace’ period since last December, a redirect page was put up at Me.com for the time being? Could be. Really hard to know the real answer.

Even more interesting are these 2 points:

1. Apple filed a patent for the MobileMe name back in 2006.
2. The term ‘MobileMe’ has been found in numerious iPhoneSDK files.

Who knows the truth. Lets just wait till the WWDC as I’m sure news on this, the new iPhone and a whole lot more will come to light. Sometimes it’s just fun to speculate isn’t it!?

[via MacRumors]

written by Mr. Mayor \\ tags: .Mac, .Me, MobileMe, WWDC 08

More 3G iPhone pics are surfacing, and this time it is of a so-called white 3G iPhone. Judge for yourself from the pictures below, but they aren’t very convincing for me…Especially the last one. I’ve simply posted this for your review, as it makes a great talking point.

Each and every time ‘leaked’ photos hit the web I have less and less faith in them. Remember the original 3G iPhone photos that surfaced? Yeah, well that just turned out to be an iPhone case off the streets in Hong Kong.

This time the photos originated at iPhoneClub.nl. If nothing else, their site will be getting a whack-load of traffic.

One thing is almost for sure though in my opinion. Look for the new iPhone to come in a few different colors… White, Black… and Red.

{via iPhoneClub.nl]

written by Mr. Mayor \\ tags: White 3G iPhone

In France, Orange is apparently giving iPhone customers hefty incentives to trade up to the new model when it arrives. Orange has been calling their customers to offer a deal on upgrading to the new 3G iPhone.

One offer would allow the user to trade in their old 2G iPhone for the new 3G version, as well as paying €50.

A second offer would let the user keep the older 2G model, but they would have the option to buy the new 3G iPhone with a ‘generous’ subsidy from the carrier.

The rumors started when quite a few readers of PCInpact reported the claims.

Orange hasn’t responded to any requests for confirmation… so file it under rumor for now. I would expect this to be somewhat true, although the finer details are probably a bit different.

Should also be interesting to see if the older 2G models will indeed be discontinued… or if they will still be offered by certain carriers. There are going to be so many countries, and so many carriers on board here, it’s really hard to tell.

Site Note: What about the millions around the world with jailbreaked and unlocked 2G iPhones? Can we trade those in to the respective carriers!?

[via electronista]

written by Mr. Mayor \\ tags: 2G iPhone, 3G iPhone, Orange

The Mac Tablet rumors are surfacing again. This time we can thank Jason D O’Grady over at the ZDNet Apple Core Blog who has noted a Mac Tablet could be coming our way as early as this fall.

According to Jason:

‘A little birdy tells me that Apple will announce a 12 or 13-inch tablet in the fall of this year. Most likely in the September or October time frame. It will run the full Mac OS X and have a slot loading SuperDrive, an “iPhone-type” GPS chip and an Intel Core Duo processor, presumably Intel’s Atom.’

Do I agree with the rumor? Of course, I think any of us would be foolish to think that Apple is NOT working on a touchscreen tablet system. They have the time, technology, developers and most importantly money to develop such a product.

In my opinion, Apple is simply taking their time to get things right... (Plus, I think they have a few other projects on the go as well ) After all, the tablet PC hasn’t exactly been a huge hit around the world. I’ve tried/used a few in my day and they simply didn’t do it for me. I’m looking for Apple to come up with some sort of ‘hook’ or difference that will make their tablet work and function head-and-shoulders above the rest.

I could see a tablet being a handy second system to have around the home… dump it in your bag and take it with you to meetings or the office when need be. I’m torn… and a little undecided if I would actually want to buy one. Probably not. A lot would depend on the price point(s) and options available.

With the launch of the MacBook Air earlier this year, I’m also excited about the prospect of an ultra-thin tablet. They have the technology, lets see if they can build it into a tablet (I see no reason why they shouldn’t).

Things I’d like to see in a Mac Tablet:

• Option of display sizes. From 12″ up to 17″
• A rugged outer shell that can take a beating
• Built-in GPS (use for maps, directions while traveling!? Perhaps a tie-in with new and existing iPhone plans here?)
• Built-in SuperDrive (external USB SuperDrive? No thanks.)
• Ultra-sleek and lightweight design (OK, I might be asking for a lot here. I’d rather have the unit shipped with a solid-state hard drive and internal SuperDrive… so I might have to compromise on the sleekness a bit!)

All-in-all the rumor makes for some very interesting discussion. What to you think about the rumor? Would you use or even want a Mac Tablet? Do you think it’s in the works or is this all smoke being blown up our a**es?

[via TheAppleCore]

written by Mr. Mayor \\ tags: iTablet, Mac Tablet

New rumors are now floating around concerning the actual launch of the 3G iPhone. We all know that it is highly rumored, and highly probable that the 3G iPhone will be announced at the WWDC in San Fransisco on June 9th. For most, it was assumed that the phone would be available on the same day.

However, new rumors are surfacing that there could be a 10-day wait until the new iPhone is released to the public. This would make some sense… especially when you consider that AT&T wireless requested that employees avoid vacations after June 15th. With this rumored 10-day wait, that would give AT&T employees a few days to train and get up to speed on the new device. AT&T wireless is also planning on beginning extra summer hiring on June 16th.

iPhoneFreak has posted a timeline that makes a lot of sense:

• June 9th - WWDC Keynote by Steve Jobs - Announces 3G iPhone and other Apple news
• June 15th - Employees at AT&T advised not to miss work for a while (begin iPhone training)
• June 16th - Temporary employees begin training for less complex crowd control (give the regular sales team a day’s head start
• June 18th - Stores open their doors for a flood of multi-touching maniacs

Make of this what you will… bottom line is we will have the 3G iPhone in our mac-happy hands by mid to late June by these recent reports.

[via i4u.com]

written by Mr. Mayor \\ tags: 3G iPhone, AT&T Wireless, WWDC 08

The folks over at electronista have just reported some very interesting information, especially if you’re a Canadian mac user.

They claim that Apple Canada is gearing up representatives in advance of an upcoming unknown event. Some staff are being asked to travel to Apple’s Markham Ontario regional headquarters for discussions taking place today. The discussions of course are the closed-door, top-secret kind. Apple staffers when questioned on this would not comment. This is a tad strange, because Apple usually arranges conference calls to bring important reps up to speed on developments. Must be a biggie. Can you say Canadian iPhone launch?

Take this rumor for what it is… but keep in mind the ever present rumors of a huge international iPhone launch extravaganza at WWDC in early June. The timing would be right and make sense for key Apple staffers to get the skinny on the launch. I know Canadians want the iPhone and have been waiting for what seems like forever…

[via electronista]

written by Mr. Mayor \\ tags: iPhone Canada, WWDC

Over at Gizmodo, they have just posted that ‘people in the know’ have let it slip that the launch date for the good ‘ol 3G iPhone is June 9th… The announcement is set to happen at the WWDC Keynote in San Fran!

Almost immediately after launch, the 3G iPhone is rumored to go direct to sale. No waiting here, announcement… and into the stores! Worldwide availability is also expected shortly thereafter. Canadians, Australians, Greeks… they’re all jonesing for the iPhone and the time could be a heck of a lot sooner than we thought.

One thing is for sure, carrier announcements have been coming in fast and furious from around the world lately. Carriers all want to sell the iPhone, and it looks like Apple wants to give it to them as fast as they possibly can. Get the iPhones out, c’mon, go, go! Canada? Yep, here you go… Italy, here you go…

It has also been reported from another source that the 3G iPhone will no longer be available at a fixed price point. With all of these new countries and carriers getting involved, I’m not that surprised. The new iPhone will apparently bring some ‘new sales policies’ to the table, although I have no idea what those are at the moment.

Note: Will the 3G really launch on the 9th? Perhaps sooner… or later? Cast your vote in our new 3G iPhone Launch Poll >

[via Gizmodo]

written by Mr. Mayor \\ tags: 3G iPhone, 3G iPhone Launch, WWDC

According to a local report, an upcoming launch of the iPhone in India is set to be the largest in history.

Industry sources say that the iPhone will be sold through 2.5 lakh Vodafone and Airtel retail outlets.

Note: The lakh is a unit of measurement in India… 1 lakh = 100,000… Thereforre 2.5 lakh would mean the iPhone will be available in 250,000 stores. Is that right? Correct me if I’m wrong here… Seems like an awful lot of stores, but then again there are an awful lot of people in India!

The iPhone will also be sold via Apple’s own outlets, which are obviously much fewer in number.

Pricing will apparently be set at Rs 23000, that’s roughly $542 USD by today’s current rates.

No further details were available regarding launch date, but you can bet I’ll keep my ear to the ground on this one. I wonder if this will be part of the rumored international launch I had reported on earlier?

[via Riyaz.net]

written by Mr. Mayor \\ tags: Airtel, India iPhone, Vodafone