It’s unfortunate that Apple has ended this program. Every single printer I’ve owned in my adult life was purchased using the rebate that came with a new Mac. I have a feeling it will be a long time before I buy another printer.

John Gruber:

I think the current behavior of the iPhone mute switch is correct. You can’t design around every single edge case, and a new iPhone user who makes the reasonable but mistaken assumption that the mute switch silences everything, with an alarm set that he wasn’t aware of, and who is sitting in the front row of the New York Philharmonic when the accidental alarm goes off, is a pretty good example of an edge case.

I’m with John on this one. I bet it’s much more common for someone to fall asleep with an alarm set and the ringer switch set to off than it is for someone to have an alarm go off in an inopportune moment when they believed the ringer on/off switch would silence that alarm.

The design of the ringer on/off switch is by no means perfect, but it’s as close as you can get without adding unnecessary user confusion through extra prompts or potentially confusing options in the Settings app.

I signed up last month and finished the first course a couple of days ago. It does a really good job of teaching people with very little knowledge of programming languages how to code.

I’ve actually been searching for a learning tool like this over the past year or so because I’ve always had the itch to learn programming. But, everything I found felt like I was fighting an uphill battle every step of the way. Codecademy makes it feel easy and, only one course in, I already feel like I’ve learned a lot.

A super fast external drive that runs off of a single Thunderbolt cable that both transfers data and powers the drive. Elgato makes fantastic peripherals. And, at $430 I’d expect nothing but the best.

Dave Caolo on his use of Siri:

Siri is handy in the kitchen. I often use it to set timers. I also have Siri turn my alarms on and off before bed. In those instances, a verbal request is faster than swiping and tapping. Unfortunately, I don’t use it for anything else. Many people say it’s a great way to read and respond to text messages. In my experience, Siri reads incoming texts well but often fails when transcribing my words.

I too haven’t found myself using Siri as often as I thought I would. But, I do still use it often enough to find it incredibly useful. I also use Siri to set timers and actually didn’t know that it was capable of turning on alarms. But, the real use case for me is in sending text messages while I’m driving.

While I don’t drive very often, usually just to and from work, I like to let my girlfriend know when I’m heading home. She likes to have dinner ready for me when I get there (her choice, not mine) and appreciates the heads up so that she can have it on the table when I walk in the door. This way we’re not eating right before we go to bed. Siri is perfect for this. I jump in the car hold the home button and use Siri to text message my girlfriend.

I haven’t found the transcription of my words to be much of a problem. Siri always seems to have an easy time figuring out what I’m saying, at least compared to my girlfriends experience with Siri. She’ll often use it to try to look something up while we’re at the dinner table and it just fails at understanding what she’s saying. I then try it on my phone and Siri almost always recognizes what I’m saying right away.

Transcription is a tricky technology and works well for some while others are left correcting it by hand. I’ve had a lot of luck with Siri’s ability to understand what I’m saying and that’s likely why I use it more often then others.

AppleInsider:

According to a source familiar with Apple’s plans, the company plans to begin operating Apple-branded areas within 25 larger Target stores in locations which can’t support a standalone Apple Store.

I doubt my local Target will be one of those locations but I’d be very happy if I didn’t have to travel two hours just to check out new Macs.

Aside from the neck on that desktop PC, they’re not bad looking machines. But, I don’t know why anyone would want to be in the Windows-based PC market right now.

John Gruber regarding DigiTimes’ claim of an iPad 3 with a full HD display to be announced in March:

Wait a minute. What’s going on here? A DigiTimes report about Apple and the iPad that’s completely accurate? No completely made-up nonsense? Is something wrong with me?

DigiTimes seems to have a formula to all of their rumors, lead with information that is most likely true and then follow it up with something that will never happen.

Gruber goes on to quote the rest of the sentence from DigiTimes’ article that claims an iPad 4 will be released in October, which he believes to be inaccurate.

Neil Hughes:

Apple has explored building displays with dynamic backlight adaptation for better picture quality, particularly when watching letterboxed widescreen movies on a high-definition screen.

This is based on an Apple patent that depicts what could be a television screen that would use dynamic backlighting to keep darker areas of the screen (or black bars in letterboxed movies) darker by dimming the backlighting in those areas.

But Apple patents everything they think of, so this in no way confirms that Apple will use this technology in their television.

Speaking of $300 tablets, RIM has slashed prices on every available model of their BlackBerry PlayBook to $299. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

(Via TechCrunch.)

James Wang:

Apple’s pricing strategy for its iPad series is crucial to the tablet market. It remains to be seen at what price level Apple will set its entry-level iPad. For Wi-Fi only models, US$299, US$349 or US$399 may all be possible.

There’s no indication that DigiTimes has any information specifically pointing to a $299 price point. It reads as pure speculation to me. And, I don’t think it’s very well thought out.

I don’t see any reason for Apple to lower the starting price point of the iPad by that much. Apple generally doesn’t make big leaps in pricing like this, especially when it’s not at all necessary. If Apple does announce two new iPad models they would likely be aimed at the high and mid-end of the market, as DigiTimes suggests. But, I wouldn’t expect them to drop the price of the iPad 2 below $399. This would allow Apple to own the entire tablet market from $399 and up.

Refurbished models, though, are a different story. It’s entirely possible that Apple will sell refurbished iPad 2s for $299 but not with any consistent availability. But, I don’t think refurbished models was what James Wang was writing about.

(Via The iPhone Blog.)

Kara Swisher reporting for All Things D:

According to sources close to the situation, Apple is planning an important — but not large-scale — event to be held in New York at the end of this month that will focus on a media-related announcement.

Her sources tell her that it isn’t the iPad 3 or the rumored Apple Television set.

we have decided that this coming January will be our last keynote presentation and booth at CES. We’ll continue to participate in CES as a great place to connect with partners and customers across the PC, phone and entertainment industries, but we won’t have a keynote or booth after this year because our product news milestones generally don’t align with the show’s January timing.

I never understood why CES was in January. It suffers the same problem that Macworld did: why would companies want to announce new products a month after Christmas?

(Via Engadget.)

This is exactly the type of system that Apple needed to put in place. There’s been numerous occasions where I’ll watch a couple of episodes from a new TV show and like it enough to want the season pass, but after spending $6-9 on episodes I don’t want to spend another $24+ just to get the season pass.

I had the chance to use an Oona on a long car trip today. It was an hour and a half both ways and we used my iPhone 4S to direct us to our destination using TomTom’s navigation app. It was even able to hold the iPhone in place with both a headphone and power cable weighting it down on both ends.

The only downside I’ve found is that the iPhone is a little wobbly while being held by the Oona. But, the Oona’s compact size and versatility makes it one of the best smartphone stands out there.

I’m not sure if they’d be able to ship it in time for Christmas but the Oona would certainly make a great gift for anyone who uses their smartphone as a navigation device.

If you’re unhappy with the latest version of Twitter for iOS, Tapbots has temporarily lowered the price of their Twitter client to $0.99. This is a great opportunity to purchase one of the best Twitter clients around.

David Richards:

Apple will launch their new Apple TV in time for the last quarter of 2012, with sources in Japan telling SmartHouse that 3 sizes are being planned including a 32″ model and a 55″ model.

(Via CNET.)

What a wonderful way to relive your childhood. Each new “page” pops open like a pop-up book and most objects react when you tap on them. I was a huge fan of A Charlie Brown Christmas when I was a child and actually own a hard-cover copy of The Joy of A Peanuts Christmas.

A Charlie Brown Christmas was developed by Loud Crow Interactive and I hope to see a lot more like this from them in the future.

The demo is meant to be viewed on other mobile devices. They even went to the trouble of making it open in fullscreen when saved to an iOS device’s home screen.

The interface looks slick and the demo is impressive, but I wish they would have made it a bit more interactive, you basically have one path through each of the tiles and none of the other “buttons” work.

(Via Daring Fireball.)

Google’s Gmail application has returned to the App Store today after their buggy 1.0 version was pulled earlier this month.

I don’t really understand why Gmail users would want to use this instead of Mail, but I guess I’m just not as much of a “power user” as they are.

It’s two weeks late, but its’ finally here. I haven’t signed up for it yet, but think I’ll be doing so before too long. I have a lot of music that I ripped from CDs years ago. It would be nice to upgrade that music to a higher bit rate without having to dig the discs out of the closet and re-rip the whole lot.

David Heath:

Steve (or someone close to him) spotted a loophole in the California vehicle laws. Anyone with a brand new car had a maximum of six months to affix the issued number plate to the vehicle.

So Jobs made an arrangement with the leasing company; he would always change cars during the sixth month of the lease, exchanging one silver Mercedes SL55 AMG for another identical one. At no time would he ever be in a car as old as six months; and thus there was no legal requirement to have the number plates fitted.

I thought Steve Jobs was cool because he just didn’t care about have a license plate on his car, but the truth makes him seem like even more of a badass.

I’m a little late linking to this but it’s a fantastic idea. It’s essentially The Deck for RSS feeds. And, it’s something I knew would happen eventually — it just seems like the next logical step for a growing list of independent online writers.

Even the most expensive thermostats are still just ugly beige boxes. Nest is a drastic improvement over every thermostat on the market, in both functionality and design. Nest is a bit expensive ($249) but with all of it’s wonderful energy saving features, it can pay for itself in no time.

Every Apple geek wants this book.

I’ve seen a lot of complaints about wait times for iPhone activation. Ben Brooks was told by AT&T that his iPhone’s activation would take place an hour after he called them, and that’s likely after waiting a bit of time before calling AT&T and spending some time waiting to talk to an actual person on the phone.

I didn’t have any problem activating my iPhone 4S. I plugged it into iTunes to restore from backup and activated online. After the device’s initial sync I rebooted it and it was activated and ready to use.

Jason Snell tries out Siri on video. It doesn’t always know what you’re trying to say, but most of the time it’s amazing.

Siri is one of the biggest features in iOS 5 and the one I’m most interested in trying for myself. If it works for me as well as it does for Jason Snell I’ll probably find myself using it a lot, especially in the car.

Mark Gurman points out that Apple is now listing iPhone 4S pre-orders as shipping in 1-2 weeks. I ordered mine at about 5:00 AM yesterday morning so I should be getting it on October 14. But, those of you who haven’t ordered yet may have to wait in line if you’d like to have it on launch day.

For anyone who’s wondering I ordered myself a black 32GB iPhone 4S on AT&T and my girlfriend a white 16GB model.

The most inspiring speech I’ve ever heard.

I’m not sure where I’ll be in ten years but I can assure you that no matter where it is, this speech will influence many of the decisions I make that get me there.

It’s amazing that someone you’ve never met can have such an impact on your life. He was a great man that will be greatly missed.

Tim Cook in an email to Apple employees:

Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.

It’s a sad day.

Rene Ritchie regarding the images that Gizmodo Brazil published late last night:

Apple typically makes a new, lower storage version of the past year’s iPhone to keep selling alongside the new one at a US$99 price point. Last year that was the 8GB iPhone 3GS. This year, it’ll in all likelihood be the 8GB iPhone 4.

I wan’t at all surprised to see these images pop up all over the place. But, we need to remember that this is exactly what Rene says it is, a cheaper to manufacture version of the iPhone 4 that will be sold for $99 alongside the iPhone 5.

Jim Dalrymple:

The companies that have to worry about the Kindle Fire are other Android-based tablet-makers. They are in real trouble at this point because they’ve already shown they can’t compete on the high-end with the iPad and now I don’t think they’ll be able to compete on the low-end with the Kindle Fire.

I don’t see where there is any room left in the market for other tablet-makers. I doubt it’s possible to build a decent tablet for less than $199 and Amazon and Apple dominate every price point above $200. Acer, Archos, Samsung, and Motorola must be worried, very worried.

The New York Times’ Brooks Barnes and Brian Stelter report that Netflix has secured a deal with DreamWorks for streaming rights of movies and television specials.

I’m all for Netflix getting more streaming content — more options means less waiting for discs or settling for second-rate content — but Netflix won’t be able to begin streaming DreamWorks films until 2013. A lot can change in 16 months. And, who knows what the media landscape will look like by then.

Victor Agreda, Jr.:

It seems that the “product transition” Apple mentioned on the last earnings call could very well be within the iPod line. Specifically, if you want to buy an iPod shuffle or iPod classic from Apple, you should do it sooner rather than later. We’ve heard those two iPods are getting the axe this year.

The iPod shuffle and iPod classic seem like the least relevant devices in Apple’s product line. Other than the relatively high price tag of the iPod nano, I don’t know why anyone would choose to purchase an iPod shuffle. And with the full release of iCloud coming soon, I don’t know why anyone would purchase an iPod classic over an iPod touch.

The writing’s been on the wall for quite some time and it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if Apple decided to discontinue both the iPod shuffle and iPod classic immediately following their event on October 4.

(Via MacRumors.)

Dave Winer:

What clued me in was an article on ReadWriteWeb that says that just reading an article on their site may create an announcement on Facebook. Something like: “Bull Mancuso just read a tutorial explaining how to kill a member of another crime family.” Bull didn’t comment. He didn’t press a Like button. He just visited a web page. And an announcement was made on his behalf to everyone who follows him on Facebook. Not just his friends, because now they have subscribers, who can be total strangers.

Every time I turn around Facebook is making some sort of change to their website that should make everyone reconsider whether the benefits of using the social network out-weigh the security concerns. I completely deleted my Facebook account a long time ago and as long as they continue to make changes like this I have absolutely no interest in returning.

And my biggest concern isn’t really with my own privacy, it’s with the privacy of my friends and family who don’t know that changes like this are taking place and often times find themselves in situations where information is posted publicly that they didn’t want to post publicly.

I just wish more people would share the concerns of Dave Winer and I.

(Via The Brooks Review.)

Windows Phone 7.5 looks like its a great update. A lot of new features for existing users and maybe a few reasons to choose Windows Phone over Android or iOS (SMS, Facebook chat, and Windows Live in one threaded view sounds like a killer feature for many of my friends and family).

Last night I had a short conversation with my Windows Phone owning cousin (Torin) about the new update. Here’s the relevant bits:

Torin: Windows Phone 7.5 Mango, I’m excited
Me: Yup, and Apple’s announcing a new iPhone on October 4th. It’s going to be a good month for cell phones.
Torin: This is so much different from what I had before.
Me: Is it better?
Torin: A lot. Everything opens faster, it looks so much nicer, and I love the new multitasking ability.
Torin: Bing Vision is amazing.

Bing Vision looks like one of the coolest new features in Mango. There are many apps that do similar things for iOS but nothing that looks as good and works as well as I’ve seen from Bing Vision.

Engadget’s review of Mango is the best one I’ve read and is one of the most comprehensive. Windows Phone appears to be lagging in a few areas but I wouldn’t be surprised if Microsoft catches up with the rest of the pack by this time next year. But, even with it’s few downsides it’s a fantastic option and there’s nothing I want more than to see more competition in this space.

The event will be held on Tuesday, October 4 at 10:00 AM PT. It’s worthy of note that they use “iPhone” in it’s singular form and have a “1″ badge on the phone icon.

Amazon sent invitations to journalists late last week inviting them to a press conference that will be held this morning at 10:00 AM. It’s very likely this will be the announcement of their rumored Android-based tablet.

I can’t wait to see what this thing is like. The iPad needs competition and if anyone’s going to do it, it’s Amazon.

Netflix CEO, Reed Hastings:

So we realized that streaming and DVD by mail are becoming two quite different businesses, with very different cost structures, different benefits that need to be marketed differently, and we need to let each grow and operate independently. It’s hard for me to write this after over 10 years of mailing DVDs with pride, but we think it is necessary and best: In a few weeks, we will rename our DVD by mail service to “Qwikster”.

On the surface this seems like an incredibly huge announcement, Netflix is officially splitting their DVD and streaming business in two. But, at second glance this is just the next logical step. Netflix doesn’t want to rent DVDs forever and eventually they’ll have a big enough streaming library to end DVD rentals for good. And, I think splitting their business in two will keep their customers happier in the long run.

There’s still a lot of people that don’t use the streaming service and only rent DVDs. Splitting the business in two will allow them to focus on improving the experience for each type of customer. If you’re still a fan of DVD rentals, it’s going to improve. If you really love Netflix streaming, it’s only going to get better.

Reed Hastings on an improvement to the DVD rental service:

One improvement we will make at launch is to add a video games upgrade option, similar to our upgrade option for Blu-ray, for those who want to rent Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360 games. Members have been asking for video games for many years, and now that DVD by mail has its own team, we are finally getting it done.

If anything, I feel a lot happier about my decision to cancel my GameFly subscription.

Also, I think it was smart to keep the name “Netflix” on their streaming business but they really couldn’t come up with anything better than Qwikster?

(Via TechCrunch.)

Dyson’s new $400 blade-less fan/heater. What an amazing product. It’s a shame it costs as much as it does.

(Via Engadget.)

Arnold Kim:

One developer has revealed to MacRumors that there is evidence that Apple has already started building in iMessage support into OS X Lion’s iChat instant messaging software.

Not much of a surprise, I just hope Apple allows iMessage users to associate more than one device with a single email or phone number for iMessage purposes. This would allow users to receive iMessages regardless of what device their using at the time.

Bloomberg:

AOL Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Armstrong is talking with advisers to Yahoo! Inc. to gauge its interest in combining the companies after the ouster of CEO Carol Bartz, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Sure, sounds like a great idea.

Nilay Patel asks all the right questions regarding HTC’s patent infringement lawsuit against Apple.

MG Siegler:

How do I know all of this? Well, not only have I heard about the device, I’ve seen it and used it. And I’m happy to report that it’s going to be a big deal. Huge, potentially.

It’s going to have a 7-inch touchscreen and run an Amazon-branded fork of Android.

It’s safe to say that this will be the first real iPad competitor. Amazon has the total package already in place — books, magazines, newspapers, movies, and apps — and no other tablet manufacturer has been able to make this happen.

Dave Caolo, explaining better than anyone, exactly why he can’t write for his weblog on the iPad:

When I’m writing an article, I like to refer to research material, like a source, supporting articles, etc. Typically that means hopping between browser tabs or text documents. Neither is really feasible with the iPad.

One year and five months after the iPad’s initial release and it’s still too difficult to write on the iPad with this workflow.

Dave seems to place more blame on Mobile Safari and iOS than I think he should. The truth is that no one has built a decent weblogging application for the iPad. And, that’s a serious disappointment. Developers have had plenty of time to build a decent application for weblogging on this thing, but instead we get more text editors, “writing environments,” and bird-based video games. Not that I dislike any of those, but where’s the iPad’s MarsEdit?

Peter Kafka:

Satellite TV channel Starz says it won’t renew its distribution deal with Netflix when it expires next February.

If the company follows through on that statement, it will mean Netflix won’t be able to provide digital access to movies from Sony and Disney — a scenario Reed Hastings and company have been trying to avoid for years.

This is bad news for Netflix unless they manage to convince Starz to renew or they’re able to acquire deals directly with content creators. Going through a middle-man isn’t always the best idea and I think Netflix is big enough to start making deals directly with the likes of Sony and Disney.

But if Netflix isn’t able to put something in place between now and February, there will be a lot of upset Netflix subscribers. Including me.

Writer and designer Aaron Mahnke recently released his latest project, Helvetindex Cards. They’re beautiful index cards that are designed to be simple and incredibly functional.

I’d love to buy a pack of these but unfortunately I’m not much of a pen and paper guy. All of my notes and organization is done on my iPhone and honestly, I’d rather carry one thing than my iPhone and a small stack of these cards. My father on the other hand was always a huge fan of organizing his life with index cards and I’m sure he would have loved these.

My only real problem with these index cards is the name. I understand the idea behind the name, but I think a better name could have been found. And, it wouldn’t have the problem of being associated with other helveti-products.

Tools & Toys is a collection of hand-selected items for the pickiest of gadget geeks, software aficionados, snowboard junkies, music lovers, writers, coffee nuts, and all around collectors of fine paraphernalia.

Subscribed.

Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr, speaking with All Things D:

iTunes customers have shown they overwhelmingly prefer buying TV shows.

I preferred purchasing TV shows to renting as well, but only because the majority of television shows that I wanted to watch weren’t even available to rent. It’s hard to succeed with a TV show rental service when you only have content from two media companies.

Mark Budgell writing for HP:

Despite announcing an end to manufacturing webOS hardware, we have decided to produce one last run of TouchPads to meet unfulfilled demand. We don’t know exactly when these units will be available or how many we’ll get, and we can’t promise we’ll have enough for everyone. We do know that it will be at least a few weeks before you can purchase.

This announcement from HP comes on the same day that Reuters publishes a report claiming that HP might “resurrect” the TouchPad. Reuters’ report doesn’t quote anyone explicitly saying that they might bring the TouchPad back, but does quote the head of HP’s Personal Systems Group, Todd Bradley, who told them “Tablet computing is a segment of the market that’s relevant, absolutely.”

From Rueters report alone, I’d suggest not getting your hopes up about HP bringing the TouchPad back. They couldn’t even get a direct quote from Bradley that they’re considering this move. But, combined with HP’s announcement that they’ll be doing “one last run” of TouchPads makes me a little hopeful that, at least HP’s spun-off computer division, might decide to bring back the TouchPad and webOS as a whole.

(Via Andy Ihnatko.)