Your going to need to know how to setup it up through a Wi-Fi network though, which is not as hard as it seems. If you are not particularly fond of the new MacBook keys you can choose from one of the other more traditions key skins. Windows users are out of luck this time as the application will only work on a Mac.

With every iPhone update that Apple releases they try to find ways to crush advancements that the iPhone Dev Team are making. We expect firmware 2.2 will have a few different tweaks to prevent jailbreaking, what we didn’t expect was that the new MacBooks would be the next wave of defense.

People over at Howard Forums are complaining that they are unable to jailbreak their iPhone using the Pwnage Tool on newly purchased MacBooks.  The new MacBooks do not recognize iPhones that are placed in recovery mode (DFU Mode), a vital step in the jailbreaking process.  It seems the creation of the modified firmware is where Apple has decided to put an end to it. This is going to create problems because users who are not trying to jailbreak their phones can not restore their iPhone anymore.

It seems the way Apple has stopped progress is in a small software modification as not much else has changed. It looks like the culprit in this case just may be the new build of iTunes. As with all the attempts that Apple makes to stop people from jailbreaking their phones, it is only a matter of time before the iPhone Dev Team finds a way around it.

[Via Engadget and HowardForums]

“We continue to expect Apple to offer a family of iPhones (2-3 separate models) in the first half of 2009, including lower priced ($200-$300) models. Just as the company slowly diversified the iPod lineup and entered lower price points with every new version of the iPod, we expect Apple to launch new models of the iPhone at lower price points in CY09. This expectation, along with the expectation for lower price points, and world wide availability of the phone, is critical to our CY09 iPhone estimate of 45m units” Gene Munster, analyst, Piper Jaffray

“[W]e believe Apple is not hesitant to try business models other than the exclusive models the company has chosen during the iPhone’s first year. It has enabled Apple to maintain tight control on the user experience of the iPhone, but expanded availability will likely become a higher priority, and we believe it will eventually drive Apple to offer the iPhone on multiple carriers in each country” Gene Munster

Munster also addresses Apple’s introduction of the App Store, describing it as a recognition that the iPhone user base was “dissatisfied with the simplified Web 2.0 apps available on the iPhone’s web browser.”  He describes the developing iPhone and iPod ranges as a sign that Apple is looking to “transform the MP3 market into a portable computing market” and that the iPod touch is the first of many WiFi-enabled, internet-friendly PMPs.  For anybody hoping for an Apple Tablet, Gene suggests it may take a few years, but will come as an evolution of the MacBook’s MultiTouch trackpad (which itself will evolve to an embedded color touchscreen):

“Eventually, we expect Apple to change the trackpad to backlit color screens for a more dynamic user interface on the Mac. And ultimately, we expect Apple to develop a full touch-screen MacBook, although not until the technology has fully matured over the next 3-5 years” Gene Munster

Nothing especially new on the iPhone, overall, but the omission of the 3G iPhone from any of Munster’s answers is a curious one.  You can read the full list of questions and answers at Apple Insider.

[via iPhone Investigator - thanks Michelle!]

More worrying, Apple is apparently contravening Russian law by failing to offer the MacBook Air with Cyrillic lettering on the keyboard, nor a Russian-localised iPod Touch.

“The whole press conference by itself seems to be pretty much useless, because it went about the movie rentals, Apple TV update, iPod touch update, etc – all great stuff, but with one little problem. iTunes Store doesn’t exist in Russia, and Apple doesn’t have plans to bring one here. And it makes all these news completely obsolete and useless” Alex Patsay, alexmac.net

Most bizarrely, when one journalist asked an Apple rep how he could pay to update his iPod Touch to the latest 1.1.3 firmware, since Russia lacks the iTunes Store, he was told “buy a new iPod touch with 1.1.3 firmware - it will have these applications already installed”

Patsay seems, if anything, concerned for Apple and their success in Russia – his worry is that buyers will travel to bordering Finland and buy cheaper Apple hardware there to bring back, thus causing Apple Russia to miss out on profits.  But if the whole debacle is even partly true, then I can’t help but think that Apple might deserve to fall flat on its face.

[via The Inquirer]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtkMMQRKqB0[/youtube]

Apple also went more environmentally friendly by cutting packaging size down 56%, making circuit boards Bromide and PVC free, and taking mercury out of the displays.

The Macbook air can be pre-ordered now in Black or White, and can be seen in stores in 2 weeks at a respectable $1799. Hit the cut for more images of the MacBook air.

However, it’s not only leaky transcripts: the rumor of a so-called MacBook Air, hinted at by sources supposedly close to Apple and believed – thanks to a photo of one of Apple’s keynote boards – to involve some form of built-in high-speed networking, has led various Mac sleuths to search Whois, site user logs (in which a mysterious “MacBookAir” entry showed up as visiting prior to the board was spotted) [via Engadget 1/2] and even press releases for accessories to try to confirm that Steve will announce a super-slim notebook with external optical-drive. 

What will Apple announce tomorrow?  Frankly, my money is – like most people’s, it seems – on a freshly slimmed-down MacBook, despite my desire that they’d unveil a new Newton tablet based on the iPod Touch and iPhone multi-touch technology.  But the only way to know for sure is to wait – oh, and check out SlashGear’s live coverage of the event for every detail, as it happens!

Purported transcript of Keynote [Void Inside via Wired]:

MacWorld January 2008 Keynote Rough Outline; draft 5

Greetings! Welcome to Moscone Center

Quick Overview: iPod/iTunes


- Today: 30 indie labels releasing their entire catalogs in iTunes Plus


- iTunes doing extremely well (sales figures/market share)


- Another new game today: Chess


- 3 iPod games released last month accidentally (supposed to be for today)


- Our new models are doing better than ever


- Sales figures, market share


- iPod has been extremely profitable for us this holiday season


- Many more to follow in the next few months

iPhone


- SDK is unveiled!


- iPhone is coming to Japan in March with NTT DoCoMo


- Four times the memory as original iPhone for the same price


- Starting today: 8GB $399, 16GB $499


- Much more than the 1% market share we asked for in January


- Sales beyond our wildest dreams


- Sales figures, market share


- Best iPod ever

iPhone/iPod Touch SDK


- Automatic updating wirelessly or docked


- Users buy/download in iTunes Wi-Fi Store / iTunes Store (Mac/PC)


- Set your own price: Apps $0-$6.99, Widgets $0-$2.99


- Specify iPhone or both iPhone/Touch (certain features iPhone only)


- Developers submit programs as source code, not executable


- Using Cocoa with Objective-C


- Apps and Widgets


- If using microphone or GSM, iPhone only; otherwise, available for both iPhone and iPod Touch


- Submits source code to Apple for validation (make sure that people aren’t abusing the system, prevent malware and viruses)


- Demonstration of exporting from XCode 3 to iTunes Store


- Apps can be free or up to $6.99; Widgets free or up to $2.99


- Developers recieve 70% of revenue for their products


- Licensed under Apple Mobile Software License


- Can download wirelessly from iTunes Wi-Fi Store or docked to computer from iTunes Store


- Demonstration of wirelessly downloading (and running) the app submitted earlier


- Apps and widgets can be rearranged on front screen; front screen scrolls to show all apps/widgets


- Resubmit updated versions of apps; when added to store, iPhone/Touch will ask you to update it next time you use it (or next time you dock the iPhone/Touch)


- Developers can get their hands on a beta version of the SDK tomorrow on ADC and start developing; final version due early February


- iTunes 7.6 and iPhone/iPod Touch Software update 1.3 allowing for Apps mid-February

Example apps/widgets


Apps:


- One of our partners made something cool: Last.fm (scrobble tracks played on iPhone/touch wirelessly without syncing w/ computer)


- RSS Feed Reader (coming with 1.3 update) (read feeds online or off)


- iChat (coming with 1.3 update) (AIM, Jabber/Google Talk)


– Quick demonstration

Widgets:


- Another partner: Twitter (update your Twitter on the fly, see your friends tweets)


- Sports Ticker (coming with 1.3 update) (choose your sports and teams, get updates on their progress)


- Yellow/White Book (coming with 1.3 update) (search for contacts, add them to your address book directly from the app, will sync back with address book on your Mac/PC)


- Dictionary (coming with 1.3 update) (quickly look up words, translate, use wikipedia)


– Quick demonstration


- Try these out on the show floor today

Mac


- Selling extremely well; estimated to overtake Tiger in terms of marketshare by June if you only count the new Macs that come with it preinstalled; even quicker if you include boxed copies


- Sales figures/market share


- Hardware sales figures/market share


- Sales are getting better and better every day


- Leopard released October; doing spectacularly


- 10.5.2 out today – many bug fixes, also addressing a lot of issues and complaints users had such as list view with stacks and certain HIG non-compliance issues

New MacBooks!

- What would MacWorld be without a new Mac? (sorry about last year)


- Completely redesigned MacBook


- Completely aluminum body like MacBook Pro


- 13″ screen at 1440×900


- Two colors: Black and Silver


- Looks gorgeous at 0.8″ thin


- A major feat of engineering – patents abound


- DVD drive pops open on side when eject button is pressed


- New on all notebooks and iMac: iSight HD (720p)


- New backlit keyboard based on recent Apple Keyboard revisions (keys slightly lighter than that of laptop casing, colorwise)


- New matching MagSafe cable (Aluminum ends, cord color matches that of keyboard)


- New matching Apple Remote (slightly smaller with larger overall buttons)


- Intel GMA X3100 graphics


- 3 models


- Completely phasing out the combo drive on all product lines today


- BTO models can upgrade all the way to 2.6GHz/4GB Memory/320GB hard drive


- 4.5 hours of battery life


- Starting at $1199

Product Refreshes


- Refreshing Mac Pro and Mac mini today


- Mac Pro now with Penryn!


- Base model 2×2.8GHz dual-core/1GB/NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 256MB/250GB(1×250GB)/1×16x double-layer SuperDrive


- Upgradeable to 2×3.2GHz quad-core/16GB/NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 512MB/4TB(4×1TB)/2×16x double-layer SuperDrives


- Starting at $2,499


- Mac mini gets slight speed bumps and double-layer SuperDrive in all models


- Base model 2.0GHz IC2D/1GB/100GB


- BTO Upgradeable to 2.4GHz IC2D/4GB/320GB


- Starting at $599

One More Thing


- Been brewing for a while


- YouTube’s been in Apple TV and iPhone/iPod touch: now it’s in iTunes


- Download YouTube videos straight to iTunes or from iPhone/iPod Touch for later offline viewing (sync back to computer)


- Coming in iTunes 7.6 and iPhone/iPod Touch 1.3 updates

“[T]he Keyboard Wireless Dock connects to the dock using Wireless USB. It also has a bigger hard drive, some sort of DVD player/burner, inputs for your USB and Firewire devices. The whole keyboard part itself is used as a large multitouch track pad. Since the keys need to be depressed when hit, you can do lighter touches as you move across the whole thing” Design’s creator

Could such a device be on the cards for Macworld on the 15th?  Given Apple’s notoriously tight-lipped attitude to new products, it’ll have to be a case of waiting and seeing. 

Flickr [via SlashGear]

Check out a video of the hacked MacBook in action after the cut

The maker admits that it’s not the most aesthetically pleasing setup, and only the white box shown on screen is actually responsive to pen-input (although if you had a bigger tablet, you could have a full-screen input device), but it works and it has all the pressure-sensitivity that the Wacom usually provides.

In terms of ergonomics, the extended trackpad would fit in with rumors that Apple have been working on MultiTouch interfaces for the MacBook ranges; however, that long button is causing many to pause and suspect the photo is not quite what it seems.  Personally, I’m no PhotoShop expert but the shadow at the leading edge looks wrong to my eyes.  Plus the button itself just appears… wrong, somehow.

Still, with MacWorld on the 15th, we don’t have long to wait to find out the truth.  Remember, SlashGear will be liveblogging the whole keynote, so bookmark the page now!

[via SlashGear]

Existing MacBooks would be a tricky fit in such a design, and their relatively large keyboards and screens would prompt little need for the docking station, which has led to the assumption that this is intended to accompany a much smaller, ultraportable notebook. 

[via SlashGear]

“If you are impressed by the “touch features” in the iPhone, you’ll be blown away by what’s coming in Windows 7″ Hilton Locke, TabBlogger

It looks as though Microsoft are also doing their own work with capacitative displays, the sort that Apple use in the iPhone and iPod Touch; in fact one has shown up in Dell’s Latitude XT Tablet PC, which the manufacturer is calling the “forerunner to emerging multi-touch capabilities”.  Ever since the iPhone launched and gathered dropped-jaws by the bucket load over its incredibly intuitive interface, the Mac faithful have been begging for the same touchscreen technology to be included in a MacBook or MacTablet; could Microsoft beat them to it?

See Dell’s capacitive interface in action, after the cut…

Of course, it’s not likely.  Many rumors point to a smaller MacBook, possibly MultiTouch-enabled, being announced at MacWorld in January.  Even if the launch doesn’t come so soon, Windows 7 is likely to drop in 2010 at the earliest which gives Apple ample time to put the finishing flourishes to the device they’re likely got waiting in the wings.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsxyhc_VnPA[/youtube]

What’s left to consider, then, is the depth to which any touchscreen interface is immersed in the OS and the software it runs.  So far, the iPhone has had hardware touch an integral part of the software environment; that, in part, could be due to the closed system of specifically-coded applications, making not just compatibility but seamless integration possible.  As touchscreen-variants of the Windows OS have discovered, adding touch to a full system can be far harder; while Vista’s inking is a great improvement on that of XP Tablet Edition, there are still many programmes (both Microsoft-made and third-party) which fail miserably to make the best use of pen or finger input.

Apple perhaps has a head start, since so many users stick to their iLife suite of bundled applications that “merely” re-coding them to take advantage of MultiTouch would vastly improve the sense of touch being designed in rather than an afterthought.  But there are undeniably questions to be asked and answered that may further delay any MultiTouch Apple portable.

As Goldman notes, speculation about an SSD-based ultraportable has long been churned over online, but based on previous hardware reports and earlier information, the screen had been suggested as 13.1-inches rather than the 12 he claims. 

“This source says he has now heard from manufacturing partners in Asia that Apple is preparing to unveil a new, ultra portable laptop computer at the company’s Macworld event next month in San Francisco.  The blogs have speculated about this, but he says he now has hard evidence that the smallest laptop ever from Apple is only weeks away. He says the device will feature a 12-inch screen and will be 50 percent thinner–and lighter–than current versions of the MacBook Pro. He says the product will not have a hard-drive, but rely on Flash memory instead and likely retail for around $1,500″ Jim Goldman, CNBC

Meanwhile, the above-expected sales of the iPod Touch have apparently caused Apple to ramp up production.  Goldman compares existing analyst sales predictions – such as Piper Jaffray’s estimated 3.7 million – to the numbers his source is saying: 5.1 million units for the holiday shopping quarter, a 38% increase.

Right now Apple stock is unflinching, despite the potential for would-be buyers to step away from their credit cards and bide their time until the new launches.

[via Macrumors; image by Maarten Brinkerink]

“The sources disclosed that Nano-Op’s LED notebook BLU shipments in November were only about 10,000 units, but Apple orders are expected drive up shipments to over 90,000 units in December” DigiTimes

Kenmos’ BLUs are apparently intended for “high-end models”; those supplied for Apple and, also announced, Dell, are estimated to hit 200,000 units for Q4 and 300,000 units in Q1 2008.

The Apple ultraportable rumor has proved almost as enduring as that of the iPhone; current thinking is that it will be outfitted with solid-state storage and be announced at the Keynote on January 15th.

“We believe NAND Flash drive sizes have now reached capacities that Apple would consider large enough to include in a new MacBook model.  As a result, a new, smaller version of Apple’s MacBook, and possibly an entirely new product, is more likely to be launched at MacWorld in early January” Gene Munster, Analyst

Munster also suggested that the iPhone would gain a mobility-friendly version of the file finding app Spotlight, enabling system-wide searches and contextual keyword strings.  Such a feature – coinciding, he believes, with the iPhone being officially opened to third-party applications – would strengthen the handset’s claims as a smartphone rather than a high-end fashion cellphone. 

[via SlashGear]