Hasta La Gadget!

Apple co-founder, Steve Wozniak, has never been one to mince words. Today’s no different as demonstrated in an interview with the Dutch-language De Telegraaf newspaper in The Netherlands. The first revelation is an admission that Apple had collaborated with a well-known Japanese consumer electronics company in 2004 to develop a phone that was ahead of its time. Woz is quoted as saying that while Apple was content with the quality, it “wanted something that could amaze the world.” Obviously, the phone was shelved followed by Apple’s announcement of the iPhone in January 2007.

Woz then moved on to the topic of Android saying that Android smartphones, not the iPhone, would become dominant, noting that the Google OS is likely to win the race similarly to the way that Windows ultimately dominated the PC world. Woz stressed that the iPhone, “Has very few weak points. There aren’t any real complaints and problems. In terms of quality, the iPhone is leading.” However, he then conceded that, “Android phones have more features,” and offer more choice for more people. Eventually, he thinks that Android quality, consistency, and user satisfaction will match iOS.

Steve closed the interview with a jab at Nokia calling it, “the brand from a previous generation” suggesting that the boys from Finland should introduce a new brand for a young consumer. Hmm, so we guess he’ll be in line for the launch of the MeeGo-based N9 then?

Update: We’ve contacted Steve (an Engadget commenter) for clarification. He says he was misquoted by De Telegraaf.

[Thanks, Nguyen T.]

Steve Wozniak: Android will be the dominant smartphone platform originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Nov 2010 06:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re still just as much in the dark as you are as to the current state and future of AirPrint, but we do now have a solution. Yesterday it was looking like wireless printing from iOS devices was out the window, but according to MacRumors.com Steve Jobs has responded to one disgruntled user’s ask for clarification, saying in typically terse prose:

AirPrint has not been pulled. Don’t believe everything you read.

Indeed you should not believe everything you read, and given there’s no way to authenticate this supposed response you might want to take that with a bit of a grain of salt too. But, until we get official confirmation one way or another, Mac developer Steven Troughton-Smith has managed to find a way to re-enable the service in the released version of Mac OS X v10.6.5. It won’t be easy, you’ll need to pull some files from a pre-release version of that version (confused yet?), but if you need to print something wirelessly today give it a shot. Or, you could just wait until tomorrow when iOS 4.2 rolls out and we see for sure what’s going on with AirPrint.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Steve Jobs says AirPrint has not been ‘pulled,’ but here’s how to re-enable it just in case originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Nov 2010 07:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sneaky Apple… real sneaky. Just as the company announced that it would be axing its rack-mountable Xserve come January 31st, in flies an all-new Mac Pro to effectively take its place. The Mac Pro Server — which is slated to ship in “two to four weeks” — has joined the fray this morning on Apple’s website, with the workstation equipped with a single 2.8GHz quad-core Intel Xeon ‘Nehalem’ processor, 8GB (4 x 2GB) of DDR3 ECC SDRAM, a pair of 1TB (7200RPM) hard drives, one 18x SuperDrive, ATI’s Radeon HD 5770 with 1GB of GDDR5 video memory, and a fresh copy of Mac OS X Server (the unlimited-client license version, for those wondering). Curiously enough, this marks the second time Apple has thrown a “server edition” into the mix, with the Mac mini Server popping up in June. As you’d expect, the $2,999 base price can be pushed far north by slapping in a pair of 2.93GHz six-core ‘Westmere’ chips (a modest $3,475 increase), 32GB of RAM (only an extra $3,400), a Mac Pro RAID card (pocket change at $700) and a quad-channel 4Gb fibre channel PCIe card (just an extra grand). But hey, financing is available!

[Thanks, Adrian]

Mac Pro Server quietly introduced as Xserve heads for the grave, starts at $3,000 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Nov 2010 09:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Everyone at once: “freakin’ finally!” While PCs — even lowly netbooks — have been enjoying the spoils of SuperSpeed USB for months on end, those in the Mac realm… well, haven’t. We’ve even seen purported email replies from Steve Jobs noting that USB 3.0 simply isn’t mainstream enough to be included as standard gear on new Macs, but that’s not stopping LaCie from hurdling the hurdles that lie ahead. The company has just announced bona fide USB 3.0 support for OS X, but the unfortunate part is that new hardware is still required; not only will you need a gratis USB 3.0 driver, you’ll also need a LaCie USB 3.0 expansion card ($49.99 for PCIe; $59.99 for ExpressCard). In other words, LaCie’s USB 3.0 driver won’t magically make any ole USB 3.0 PCIe card play nice in your Mac Pro. But hey, there’s always hope, and frankly, hope’s all ya need.

Continue reading LaCie brings USB 3.0 to Mac: all you need is a driver and an expansion card

LaCie brings USB 3.0 to Mac: all you need is a driver and an expansion card originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Nov 2010 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve been anticipating FaceTime for the Mac ever since we spied the feature on the iPhone, and now Apple is making our dreams a reality with a handy new beta Mac OS X application dubbed “FaceTime.” It’s not an iChat replacement; far from it, in fact. Instead, the standalone, lightweight app dedicates itself to FaceTime calls only, with no sign of your handy AIM or Gtalk buddy list to help you along. It pulls its list of contacts strictly from the Mac Address Book, with no editing available in app, and you’d better hope you have a good handle on that list of contacts (our Gmail-tainted version could certainly use some work). You have to click on a person’s name and then guess which email or phone number they have associated with a FaceTime account — none of the helpful icons from the iPhone have made it over to guide you. It took quite a bit of extra-FaceTime communication to sort out what was what, but once you guess at the right bit of info to place the call with, it’s typical Apple simplicity.

From the phone side it’s intuitive enough: call the email address associated with an Apple ID and you get the computer, call the phone number and you get the iPhone. Conveniently, your computer will “ring” even if the app is closed, though you can turn this feature off in System Preferences if it unsettles you. Hopefully Apple takes this “beta” moniker seriously and has some extra features to add before it releases the final version of the app. We also wouldn’t mind seeing this folded into iChat proper — why have two first party video chat methods? Either way, computer-to-phone conversations are here to stay. The payoff? The psychedelic experience of viewing four Paul Millers simultaneously.

Update: Want a special little bonus? You can apparently video chat with iChat and FaceTime simultaneously, though we tried to add Skype as a third conspirator into the mix and failed (there’s a pic of our experiment after the break). Oh, you should also know that there’s apparently no way to shut off the video in FaceTime outside of quitting the app or physically covering up the camera. EXCLUSIVE: Is Steve Jobs Watching You Sleep? More at 11.

Continue reading FaceTime for Mac hands-on: it works, it’s rough

FaceTime for Mac hands-on: it works, it’s rough originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 20 Oct 2010 15:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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