MacBreak Weekly with Leo Laporte

Jun 19th 2007

MacBreak Weekly 45

Talk Time

iPhone gets a better battery and screen, MacGPS rumors, and Safari holes...

Records live every Tuesday at 2:00pm Eastern / 11:00am Pacific / 18:00 UTC.
Category: News
  • Apple announced that iPhone will have extended battery life. 6 hrs talktime, 7 Hours Video and internet, 20 hours standby. Apple also said that iPhone will have a glass screen. Rumor: You will need to buy data plan. They think everyone in line will buy it regardless of price. Leo wants iPhone because the 8 hours talktime is longer than his Nokia N95
  • Rathole: The Missing Sync now does Yojimbonotes and Treo SMS. Merlin likes the missing sync because it has conduits for tasks, calendars, etc. We think Scott must have had trouble syncing because he has verizon… but we all have AT&T;, don't we?
  • Rumor: The Apple stores and AT&T; stores will close around 4:00 - 4:30 for iPhone delivery (Unconfirmed). They will re-open at 6pm, local time. Scott is purchasing 12 iPhones. We all know Scott is keeping them all for himself (though he says otherwise). Scott, just give them the phones!
  • The best way to get an iPhone, according to Steve Jobs, is to go to an AT&T; store because the Apple Stores will be PACKED! Walt Mossberg has his iPhone, and even showed it to everyone. Leo thinks this it the largest rollout of any consumer electronics item ever. Careful Scott, Mac geeks are vicious!
  • What can you do with your iPhone? Merlin saw somewebsites talk about iPhone web applications. A total list of apps is here . There's an iPhone Application Developers Camp in the bay area as soon as the iPhone comes out. Newsflash!YouTube on the iPhone with h.264.
  • Will there be an Airplane mode? Scott thinks (and has heard) that there will be. Alex makes a good point, at 35,000 feet in the air, if the phone cant find a signal, it will run the battery into the ground. Merlin wants to be able to access email on iPhone with out a connection to the internet.
  • Is iPhone "ADA" (American Disabilities Act) compatible? Scott says that the audio feedback would be a good loophole for it to work.
  • Will Safari be a good mobile browser? Maybe. Leo thinks if its un-modified, it would be terrible. Merlin thinks if you can disable or modify the CSS Apple will hit a home run. Meriln is sure the experience will be wonderful. Is it possible that safari will be as bad most mobile browsers? Not a chance. There is a rumor that the ports for Skype/VOIP will be shut-off.
  • Good bye iPhone. Hello GPS? There is a rumor that Apple is designing a standalone GPS unit of their own. Alex wants it to be built into everything or to be a peripheral. Alex also wants some sort of audio tour based on where you are. Merlin likes his Garmin nuvi because he doesn't get lost as much. TIP: Turn off the backlight. (Are we in a rathole?) Leo has a little mio GPS unit for around his neck. Merlin uses his GPS to find his car by setting a waypoint. Merlin likes MacGPS Profor gps files.
  • How long will the iPhone buzz continue? Scott is already getting emails for iPhone v2.0. Leo is interested in an iPhone iPod.
  • Rumor: Coming soon, the first radical re-design of the iMacs in 2-3 years, this summer. It will be both slimmer and sleeker, and the 17 inch will be dropped.
  • 1 Million downloads of Safari for windows in the first 48 hours. Apple has released 3 patches for Safari because of the zero day exploits.

Thanks to Audible for sponsoring this podcast. The MacBreak Recommended Book of the Week to listen to is The Big Moo, by Seth Goden. Offer for U.S. citizens only.

Software Picks of the week. Cue Leo's fake trumpets.

  • Merlin likes mouse drag object triggers for Quicksilver You can associate sides and corners of your screen to become quicksilver triggers. The triggers provide the "verb" of the quicksilver sentence. You can do the sides and corners and have a key command too.
  • Leo got a recommendation for Eaglefiler. It is a yojimbo replacement using the Mac OS X core data in your Library. Leo also syncs his Library with iSync so his notes go where he goes. Thanks CB!
  • Scott reccomends Merlin. Merlin is a project with "a bit of magic". It is a project magagement software that lets you plan your projects. Alex likes how it has dependencies where if one part of your project slips, it will move the others down the timeframe.

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