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Filed under: Hardware, Multimedia, iPhone, iPod touch

Last night I received an email from a friend who was irate. He's been using his iPod touch as a portable video solution with a dock and video out cable. The iPod and the cable got along famously until he updated to iPhone OS 3.0.1 OS 3.0 [sorry, there isn't a 3.0.1 for the iPod touch]. Now, the iPod refuses to recognize it. Same cable, same dock, same iPod.

We looked around and found that he's not alone. There's a thread on Apple's Discussion Boards reporting the same thing. It's affecting both the iPod touch and the iPhone. Apparently 3.0 is specifically designed to reject 3rd party cables, strictly on the premise that they fail the "Made by Apple" test. One poster on the discussion board notes that the original Apple Component AV cable and dock work fine. Sure, you could restore and downgrade, but that seems silly.

Of course, no company has a responsibility to support 3rd party devices, so my friend is out of luck. But we're sympathetic. If you're affected by this issue, all we can say is it's probably time to pony up for a cable from Apple.

TUAWiPhone OS 3.0 breaking video out originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 31 Aug 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Odds and ends, MobileMe

Update 2:30p ET 9/1: We've heard more from the theft victim; see the latest news on this crime story here.

We're getting our share of crime stories lately, and today's is really a jaw dropper. I'm going to be sketchy on details and locations because there is an investigation underway.

Here's what we have so far. An East Coast man had his house broken into with 2 Macs and one PC stolen, along with some other household items of value.

One of the Macs was a laptop, and our victim bought a new MacBook Pro to replace it, and used a Time Machine backup to restore all his files. The crime was reported to police, who said they had no leads, but there had been a string of similar burglaries in the area for quite some time.

When our victim (we'll call him Jim) sat down at his replacement laptop last night, he saw one of his missing computers come up as a share via the Back to My Mac feature of MobileMe. He clicked on the share, and explored the files of his stolen machine. You can guess what comes next. Taking a chance, he clicked on screen sharing, and saw that someone was using his Mac, checking lottery numbers on a web page.

Jim didn't want to take control of the Mac, so he just watched, fascinated. Later, when activity on his missing computer stopped, he went to the network panel and grabbed an IP address, and took a screen shot of it.

This morning, he saw someone applying for a job online using the stolen laptop, and Jim now has the Social Security number, address and phone number used on the job application. Jim speculates it is possible the machine has been sold to someone and that is who was applying for the job. Or it could still be with the crooks.

He's contacted the police, and we don't know how this saga ends yet, but we'll let you know how it all works out. So far we've got a pretty smart victim and some really dumb crooks. Jim says he is sure he'll be renewing MobileMe when it's time.

Details at 11.

[Thanks to 'Jim' for sharing his experience with all of us]

TUAWAn incredible stolen Mac story without a final chapter originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 31 Aug 2009 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A new report questions whether obtaining the iPhone was a good deal for AT&T; and Grand Theft Auto, one of the most successful video game franchises of all time, is coming to the iPhone this fall.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Rumors, Wireless, Odds and ends, iPhone

Gene Munster, the Piper Jaffrey senior research analyst who usually hits the nail on the head when it comes to Apple forecasts, thinks that Apple will move to multiple U.S. carriers within the next year. He believe that this will happen next summer, which has been the time when Apple has introduced new models of the iPhone.

Munster noted that having multiple carriers in a market has helped Apple to achieve greater success in terms of market penetration. He pointed to France as an example; originally, Apple inked an exclusive arrangement with Orange. When it moved to a multi-carrier deal, Apple's market share in France jumped to about the 40 percent range. In the U.S., the iPhone's market share is only in the mid-teens.

Many industry pundits expect the next iPhone carrier to be Verizon, since they are beginning a transition to a new, iPhone-compatible 4G network (LTE) in the next year. This would make the transition rather simple for Apple, since they wouldn't have to design an EV-DO iPhone, but instead just use the current hardware design.

Update: Per TUAW reader Ben C., the Verizon 4G transition is not expected to be completed until 2013. In addition, a CDMA-based iPhone would need to be deployed for Verizon. Thanks for the correction and explanation.

[via LoopInsight]

TUAWGene Munster: iPhone on multiple U.S. carriers in 2010 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 31 Aug 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Apple Corporate, iPod Family, Other Events, iPod nano, iPod touch, iPod classic

At last Apple has begun distributing invitations to a press event scheduled for September 9th. The image on the invitation, which features a classic silhouette dancer, pretty much confirms our suspicion that this particular dog-and-pony show feature the iPod (now with cameras! ...maybe). Apple typically introduces new iPods in September.

This year's event will take place at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco on September 9th at 10:00 a.m Pacific time. Perhaps then we'll see that secret television ad. In any case, we think it's safe for the pro-tablet theorists sit this one out. Maybe next time, folks.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

TUAWApple confirms Sept. 9 press event originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 31 Aug 2009 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Accessories, Developer, iPhone

Want to sketch out your iPhone apps? There's a notebook for that.

App Sketchbook is a pretty nifty notebook for iPhone developers who want to sketch out their products out on paper as part of the brainstorming process. App Sketchbook has three pre-drawn, full-sized iPhone templates per page with ruled lines beneath for notes. A pixel ruler runs alongside the template. You can use them in conjunction with iPhone UI stencils to get your ideas down on paper.

The App Sketchbook is a wire-bound notebook with 100 double-sided pages. It costs $12.95USD.

Edit (1:30 PST): Apparently make that $16.95USD as apparently the Web site updated right around the time I made my original post. A screencap of the original price is available here.

TUAWA sketchbook for iPhone apps originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 31 Aug 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: OS, Software, TUAW Tips, Snow Leopard

As all of us are starting to get familiar with Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, we're starting to find little features that aren't immediately visible and are pretty cool!

My first surprise came when one application asked me to make sure that my date and time settings were correct. I dutifully popped into System Preferences, clicked on the Date & Time preferences pane, clicked on the Time Zone tab, and noticed a couple of things that were different:
First, the time zone I'm in (Mountain) was highlighted and as I moved my cursor left and right, a "ghost" appeared for whatever time zone I was currently over (see arrow above). That in itself wasn't anything great, but the check box at the top -- Set time zone automatically using current location (see oval above) -- was intriguing so I clicked on it. The map went to shades of gray, and then Snow Leopard used the SkyHook Wireless's Wi-Fi positioning service to figure out where I was.

Continue reading A pawful of quick Snow Leopard tips

TUAWA pawful of quick Snow Leopard tips originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 31 Aug 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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