Live Stream of Apple Back to Mac Event might happen

Mac Rumors have just reported that many websites are citing a late minute live stream of today's Back to Mac Event. I hope to bring you updates from Geekanoids as the news breaks. It seems that Apple's PR department may also be sending out emails confirming this too.

The email is said to read as follows (source Gizmodo)…

Apple to Provide Live Video Streaming of Today's Event

What: Live video stream of Apple's October 20 event

When: Wednesday, October 20, 2010, 10:00 a.m. PDT

Where: www.apple.com/uk

Live Video Streaming

Apple® will broadcast its October 20 event online using Apple's industry-leading HTTP Live Streaming, which is based on open standards. Viewing requires either a Mac® running Safari® on Mac OS® X version 10.6 Snow Leopard®, an iPhone® or iPod touch® running iOS 3.0 or higher, or an iPad™. The live broadcast will begin at 10:00 a.m. PDT on October 20, 2010 at www.apple.com/uk.

This broadcast is the property of Apple and is protected by US copyright law and international treaties. Any reproduction or distribution is strictly prohibited without prior written approval from Apple. Please contact Apple Public Relations with any questions.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork, and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple is reinventing the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced its magical iPad which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.

[Quote Ends]

Today's event will happen 6pm GMT and it is expected that Apple will announce a new version of their MacBook Air, as well as news of iLife 11 and a feature reveal of Mac OS X 10.7. Exciting times ahead then, with plenty of new goodies to review on Geekanoids :)

WWDC 2010 - Apple iPhone 4 - FaceTime

Steve Jobs took to the stage yesterday to announce the iPhone 4. Whilst I am waiting for my iPhone 4 video to upload I wanted to bring you this bit of editorial to discuss FaceTime with you.

FaceTime is iChat on the iPhone… or is it? Whilst it was announced as an iPhone 4 feature, there was one part of Steve's keynote speech that got me to thinking. Take a look, it states that Apple will ship 10's of millions of FaceTime Devices in 2010. To me this indicates quite a few possibilities. Firstly, that FaceTime will become part of the Mac OS. Instead of iChat, you will launch FaceTime on your Mac and can then video conference with someone on their iPhone 4… how cool is that! Secondly, we have all seen the rumours of an iPod touch with camera. Maybe Apple are working on a version with a front facing camera on the iPod touch too, so that everyone can have some FaceTime with their loved ones.

It is also a possibility that they will still announce an updated AppleTV streaming device. If they do, it is easy for them to incorporate a FaceTime add-on, so we could be video chatting on out TV's. Add to this the fact that by the end of the year we may even see a 2nd generation iPad with camera… then you get an idea of the product lineup that could add up to Steve's 10 million quote.

Back to FaceTime… apart from not liking the name, it seems pretty great. Easy to make a video call, with voice being handled by your cellular network and the video via WiFi. It won't be as popular to begin with because of the requirement of within range WiFi. Once the mobile phone companies get up to speed and we can use the service over 3G or 4G then it'll fly and Apple will have another winner on their hands.

Apple releases Aperture 3

Apple today introduced Aperture 3, the next major release of its powerful photo editing and management software, with over 200 new features including Faces, Places and Brushes. Building on the innovative Faces and Places features introduced in iPhoto ’09, Aperture 3 makes it even easier and faster to organise large photo libraries. Aperture 3 introduces new tools to refine your photos including Brushes for painting image adjustments onto parts of your photo, and Adjustment Presets for applying professional photo effects with just one click. Stunning new slideshows let you share your work by weaving together photos, audio, text and HD video.

“Millions of people love using iPhoto to organise, edit and share their digital photos”, said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “Aperture 3 is designed for both professionals who edit and manage massive libraries of photos and iPhoto users who want to take their photos further with easy-to-use tools such as Brushes and Adjustment Presets”.

“Aperture 3 gets it right”, said National Geographic photographer, Jim Richardson. “The image editing tools are exactly what I have been asking for, they’re so easy to use and give me a level of control that I never even thought possible”.

“I chose Aperture because it was the most powerful archiving application around, but it’s now an unbelievable imaging tool as well”, said Bill Frakes, Sports Illustrated staff photographer. “I am beyond impressed with the massive changes made in Aperture 3”.

Aperture 3 allows you to organise large photo libraries with even more flexibility using Projects and the new Faces and Places. Faces uses face detection and recognition to find and organise your photos by the people in them. You can view faces across your entire photo library or view just the faces that appear in selected projects. In a new view that speeds up the organisation process, Aperture 3 displays faces that have been detected but haven’t yet been named. Places lets you explore your photos based on where they were taken, and like in iPhoto, Places automatically reverse geocodes GPS data into user-friendly locations. In Aperture 3, you can assign locations by dragging-and-dropping photos onto a map or by using location information from GPS enabled cameras, tracking devices or your iPhone photos.

The new Brushes feature allows you to add professional touches to your photos by simply painting effects onto the image. Aperture 3 includes 15 Quick Brushes that perform the most popular tasks like Dodge, Burn, Polarize and Blur, without the complexity of layers or masks. Brushes can automatically detect edges in your images to let you apply or remove effects exactly where you want them. Aperture 3 includes dozens of Adjustment Presets that apply a specific style or look to the entire image with just a click. You can create your own custom presets or explore the techniques of other photographers by importing theirs.

Aperture 3 makes it easy to share your work with stunning slideshows that weave together photos, audio, text and HD video. You can select one of six Apple designed themes or choose your own transitions, background, borders and titles, and even add your own soundtrack. You can export your slideshows directly to iTunes to take with you on your iPhone or iPod touch. You can also share photographs as beautiful prints, create custom-designed hardcover books and publish to online photo sharing sites like Facebook and Flickr, right from Aperture 3.

Pricing & Availability
Aperture 3 is available through the Apple Store, Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorised Resellers for a suggested retail price of £169 (inc VAT) and existing Aperture users can upgrade for a suggested retail price of £79 (inc VAT). A downloadable 30-day trial version is available at www.apple.com/uk/aperture/trial. Aperture 3 runs as a 64-bit application on Mac OS X Snow Leopard on Macs with Intel Core 2 Duo processors. Full system requirements, online tutorials and more information on Aperture 3 can be found at www.apple.com/uk/aperture.

My Mac is a Drug - new Book available for pre-order

Get your reading cap on guys and gals, a new book has been added to the Geekanoids Shop. "My Mac is a Drug" is Paul Camelovi's recollection of how technology, gadgets and mainly Mac computers have taken over his life. The title makes the content obvious with many comparisons to addiction to drugs, through to a look at Apple's design process. Even quality control is covered to some degree. It is also worth noting that if you get your order in early, you can save £2 off RRP. Orders are accepted worldwide. Click the link for a shortcut to the pre-order page.

Apple's It's only Rock & Roll Event - Expectations

Today at 10am Pacific Time, 6pm GMT, Apple will be holding an event to launch a slew of new products. The 'It's only rock and roll' event takes place at the Yerba Buena Centre for the Arts in San Francisco, where they have adorned the front with a striking music banner.

Every September we see new iPods. So, it is a forgone conclusion that we will see a new iPod Nano and touch. There have been many pictures doing the rounds of new cases. The most likely being the Hama cases that featured on Engadget. It seems an obvious step for Apple to introduce a camera to the iPod touch, bringing video capabilities and simple editing akin to the iPhone 3GS. The Nano will more than likely only be able to take photos. There has also been rumours that Apple experienced problems with the initial batch of camera units. If this is true, we might see a slight shipping delay after launch.

We might also hear two bits of sad news too. The iPod classic is likely to be retired. When it was announced as the 120GB version available today, the company said it would be the last version of this model. The second wipeout news, is that of the AppleTV. The 40GB version has been showing as 1-2 weeks shipping for a while in the Apple online store. This may well indicate that stock is being run down on this model. It would be nice to think that Apple does keep on developing the AppleTV, maybe even showing us a new version later today.

A new iTunes (version 9) is also likely. With social networking additions for Facebook and Twitter. It seems as though the application is getting a little cluttered now and is certainly trying to do too much. Keep it simple Apple, or people will lose interest! Also rumoured is The Beatles coming to the iTunes Store. This is not a big deal for me, plus I don't think it'll happen today anyway.

The most anticipated product that people want to see is the Apple Tablet. If Steve Jobs takes to the stage, he may well surprise us. I personally don't think it is that likely, but I really would love to see it. A 10-inch touch screen device, with HDMI output would be superb. Surely acting as the coolest media type server on the planet. Of course, it would do a lot more besides just serving up content. Apple will do the touch interface just right and you will see a lot of people opting for these over a laptop. Keep checking back on Geekanoids later today and tomorrow for full coverage of what Apple has up its sleeve(s).

Apple Snow Leopard to land August 28th

My order is in, is yours? Apple have delivered on their promise. Their next operating system, in the form of the greatly optimised Snow Leopard is now available to pre-order. They said September and whilst everyone was expecting the last day of the month, they pulled it out fo the bag. You can pre-order now for £25, shipping on August 28th, it may well be in your hands prior to the beginning of September.

Now, I know it does not offer stacks of new features, but it still excites me. It has some cool enhancements. It is sleeker, faster and smarter. The new OS even promises to save you around 6GB of hard disk space. All the main system applications are now 64-Bit and Grand Central Dispatch promises to take full advantage of multicore processors. Better graphic performance courtesy of OpenCL and a new version of Quicktime. Sound good? Check out Geekanoids for full coverage and installation guides when it lands on my desk.