Apple

iTunes Store suffering outages, delays

The wait to access the iTunes Store on Thursday morning is starting to resemble the wait for Guns N' Roses' new album.

If you had designs on purchasing the long-delayed album Chinese Democracy Thursday from Apple, you were in for a long wait. iTunes customers reported long delays when trying to access the store, which appeared to be up but suffering in some way. The problems appeared to affect all parts of the store, including the App Store, and range from pages timing out, to odd pages such as the one above cropping up during searches, to just plain old … Read more

Pastebud to bring cut and paste to iPhone

A new Web service called Pastebud will soon let iPhone users copy and paste text from Safari into e-mail messages and between Web pages.

Since the iPhone was launched 18 months ago, many users have complained about its lack of cut and paste capabilities. Users were once again disappointed when the iPhone 3G debuted in July with that same omission.

Third parties have tried to create applications to add cutting and pasting to the iPhone, but most have failed. One such application called OpenClip, seemed promising earlier this year. But Apple's iPhone 2.1 software, released in late summer, … Read more

iPhone app Truphone enables calls via carriers

Correction: An earlier version of this story mischaracterized the state of the U.S. iPhone 3G's SIM card. It can be removed, but AT&T does not provide an unlock code so that another carrier's SIM card will work on the phone.

Truphone, which has an App Store application that enables iPhone and iPod Touch users to make cheap international phone calls via a Wi-Fi connection, now can be used by iPhone users to make cheap calls from anywhere.

Previously, Truphone, which launched as a free application in Apple's App Store in July, worked only when … Read more

Apple stabilizes new Mac notebooks

Apple has released several new firmware updates aimed at solving problems with its latest batch of notebooks.

Updates are available for all three Mac notebooks released in October: the new MacBook Pro, MacBook, and MacBook Air. In usual fashion, Apple didn't provide a whole lot of detail about the issues that are corrected by the EFI firmware updates, other than to note that they "improve the stability" of those new systems.

The company also released firmware updates for the SMC (system management controller) chip inside Mac notebooks, which helps regulate power consumption among other things. Those updates &… Read more

Psystar shifts course, says Apple abusing copyright

Having run into a roadblock in its attempt to fire back at Apple, Psystar is changing tactics.

Court filings this week (click here for PDF) indicate that Psystar is dropping its argument that Apple is violating antitrust laws--which Judge William Alsup has already rejected--in favor of a new argument that Apple is abusing its copyright on Mac OS X to stifle competition. The Mac clone maker is attempting to stay in business against long legal odds by trying to convince a court that Apple's licensing policies for Mac OS X are unfair and illegal.

From the filing:… Read more

Video, memory issues with MacBooks being reported

Problems with Apple's newly redesigned MacBooks are being reported on Apple discussion boards and across the Internet.

The new notebooks, which have already run into problems with the trackpad, are said to have problems with video performance, third-party memory chips, and staying in sleep mode. It's always difficult to get a sense of how widespread such problems are from tracking message board posts--and every computer ever made has had problems--but the volume of such complaints regarding the new systems seems to be increasing.

Gizmodo collected some of the more pressing problems in a post Monday. The memory issue involves crashes that appear to be linked to adding third-party memory chips into the new MacBooks and MacBook Pros. Apple charges way more for memory upgrades than other companies such as Crucial or Other World Computing, so savvy Mac users interested in adding memory on their own often choose one of those products.

That post also highlights an issue that involves the MacBook Pro being unable to stay in sleep mode, turning itself on when closed every minute or so, or freezing when woken up by the user. That issue doesn't seem as serious as the memory one, but if you've noticed this problem resetting your MacBook's PRAM seems to have worked for some people.

… Read more

Apple branching out in 2009?

Familiar Apple rumors are making the rounds again this week as Macworld looms in the distance, one month away.

Trip Chowdhry of Global Equities Research put out a research note Monday morning spotted by D: All Things Digital saying that Apple plans to release something from "a completely new device category" next year. He fails to explain exactly what such a product might encompass, but speculates that it will be based around a processor designed by the former P.A. Semi engineering team.

As a result, the usual rumors (Mac tablet, iPhone Nano, iKindle) are under discussion within … Read more

Google's search ads arrive on iPhone, G1

The iPhone and T-Mobile G1 come with pretty much full-fledged Web browsers, and Google now is according them that status by showing search ads on the phones.

Advertisers bidding for search ads through Google's AdWords service now can choose to have ad campaigns run exclusively on iPhones and the T-Mobile G1, the first phone with Google's Android operating system, which also has a robust browser. Alexandra Kenin, product marketing manager for Google's mobile ads team, announced the move on the company's Google Mobile Blog Monday.

By using the "iPhones and other mobile devices with full … Read more

Wal-Mart workers spill the beans on iPhone launch

The iPhone is coming to Wal-Mart Stores, though when and for how much is still unclear.

Four electronics department managers at Wal-Mart stores in Delaware, New Jersey, and New York said Monday that they were already training employees to sell Apple iPhones. Two department managers, who didn't want their names used in this story, said the phones are expected to go on sale on December 28. Bloomberg News reported Sunday that a Wal-Mart employee in Stockton, Calif., expects to start selling iPhones on December 15.

Department managers on the East Coast also said they expect to be selling both … Read more