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Apple Planning to Add Bluetooth Support for AirPlay, and Expand iOS Accessory Capabilities

Arnold Kim - MacRumors

Japanese blog Macotakara (via AppleInsider) reports that Apple held a MFI Conference conference in Shenzen, China this past week. "MFI" is Apple's Made for iPod / iPhone / iPad certification program for accessory manufacturers.

During the talk, Apple reportedly revealed that they were going to provide a new certification chip for their MFI program to encourage more iOS-compatible accessories. The new chip will allow access to iOS devices over AirPlay, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. While Macotakara does not specify how this differs from the current program, the current program seems to be limited to physical dock accessories and specific AirPlay vendors.

In fact, TouchArcade recently touched on this fact in a recent article on iOS gaming accessories. TouchArcade noted that the reason why all the current gaming accessories such as the ThinkGeek iCade relies on Bluetooth keyboard emulation is due to the restrictions Apple has placed over bluetooth connections. It seems that this restriction will be loosened with the new certification chip, though details are sparse at the moment. TouchArcade suggests this could open the way to low-latency analog control sticks for iOS gaming.

Apple was also promoting the use of the new version of Low Energy Bluetooth 4.0 which was added in the iPhone 4S, noting that it could be used to support new applications in health care and gaming markets. We profiled the possibilities for Bluetooth Low Energy back in July.

Finally, Apple reportedly revealed that they would be adding support for AirPlay over Bluetooth, though it's not entirely clear what advantages this will offer.

Apple Posts a Beatles iTunes TV Ad: Covers

Apple has posted a new TV ad on their YouTube page promoting The Beatles on iTunes. The ad is called "Covers" and shows off many of different album covers from The Beatles in an animated fashion. The ad ends with "The Beatles on iTunes". 

The Beatles first appeared on the iTunes store back in November 2010. The new TV ad seems part of another promotion announced earlier today of a free animated version of the band's Yellow Submarine book as an exclusive on Apple's iBookstore

This Is the Crap Tablet Apple Thinks Samsung Should Make

BY JESUS DIAZ   at gizmodo

This image shows Apple lawyers' wet dream for a Samsung tablet. It demonstrates one thing: the Apple lawyers who described it are imbeciles and/or clueless mischievous snakes. Just as much as Samsung's product designers are unimaginative shameless cloning bastards.

These are Apple's demands verbatim:

• Shapes that are not rectangular with four flat sides or that do not have four rounded corners.
• Front surfaces that are not completely flat or clear and that have substantial adornment.
• Thick frames rather than a thin rim around the front surface.
• Profiles that are not thin relative to [Apple patent D'889] or that have a cluttered appearance.

Apple is right to point out that the design and packaging of Samsung's Galaxy tablet is a clone of the iPad. It's not exactly the same, but it's clearly made to look like the iPad. But Apple's demands are just plain stupid.

Instead, they should have just asked Samsung to design a tablet that nobody could mistake for an iPad in a reasonable way. This could have been really easy. You only have to look at the Playbook or the Kindle Fire or any other tablet out there except for Samsung's. They are well designed and nobody can confuse them. Samsung could have done this:

Full size

Pretty simple. Nobody would mistake that for an iPad but it would retain optimal usability. In fact, using that dark grey—like color professionals use for color proofing—would make this tablet better for color perception and give it its own distinctive look.

Incidentally, except for the change of hue from black to neutral grey, this is actually the tablet that Samsung has made to avoid more legal trouble. Apple is suing them again because they think it's not enough. I bet that if they changed the color no judge in the world would rule against them.

For more design commentary about the Samsung vs Apple design war, go to Baekdal. I think many of his arguments are fallacies, worked in reverse to make them appear logical. But I agree on the basic principle: Apple can't make any manufacturer to ignore certain fundamental aspects of industrial design.

Apple Store Grand Central Opens Friday, December 9

Just in time for the holidays, Apple’s fifth Manhattan store opens for business at New York’s world-famous Grand Central Terminal at 10 a.m. on Friday, December 9. The store overlooks the historic Main Concourse and features two Genius Bars, entire rooms dedicated to Personal Setup and Personal Training, and an expert team of 315 employees. Holiday shoppers can test-drive Apple products, attend 15-minute Express workshops, get free technical support, and more.

Apple TV updates stream purchased TV shows to Australia, Canada and the UK

By Richard Lawler at engadget

Apple TV users (the hockey puck, not the pie in the sky rumored flat panel with magic fairy dust inside and an extra unaired season of Firefly) in Canada, Australia and the UK were gifted a download today, bringing iCloud-streamed TV show purchases (which debuted back in August Stateside) out to their box. The shows had been available but only via iTunes on a computer. We haven't heard anything official from Apple yet, but the usual per-episode price structure price structure of a couple bucks per episode still applies, so while entire groups of people that use the word "holiday" to describe a vacation browse the catalog, we'll keep an eye out for any official word from Apple or word of other areas suddenly turned on.

Untethered jailbreak for iOS 5.0 showcased on YouTube (video)

By Sharif Sakr at engadget

Love to jailbreak but hate to tether every time you reboot? Then help could soon be at hand courtesy of hacker Pod2g. He just put out a video showing off a new exploit that continues to work on an iPod Touch even after it has been switched off and on. It appears to be running on iOS 5.0 rather than 5.0.1, so somedowngrading might be called for. We don't know when it'll be released to the masses, or how long it'll last once Apple catches wind, but in the meantime there are of course various alternatives if you can stomach the risks and don't mind a bit of USB tomfoolery.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]