Apple MagSafe Replacements Are Now Free
In our anecdotal experience, Apple has been pretty good about replacing clearly faulty MagSafe power adapters—the ones that split or fray from faulty manufacture. But now they are making their replacement policy official and offering free MagSafe replacements for the MacBook (13-inch Late 2006), MacBook (13-inch), MacBook Pro (15-inch Glossy), MacBook Pro (17-inch). (We read that as all models that use the MagSafe power adapter). Bring in your bad MagSafes to any Apple retailer and they’ll take care of you. [Apple via Cult of Mac]
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Apple Receives Six New Patents: New MacBook, Dock Designs Coming?
Apple today received not one but six patents for a variety of items, including an iPhone/iPod touch stand, an amplification system, a form of speech synthesis, and something it calls a “computing device” that looks a lot like a MacBook to us. Also, a new earbud/lanyard design, and a new backlighting scheme. Keep in mind, some of these patents might be for things Apple already sells, it’s a common practice and is responsible for the “patent pending” phrase on some products. Others, though, like the stand, haven’t been seen by eyes outside Apple, and it makes us curious if we ever will. [MacNN]
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Apple to release new iPhone/iPod touch dock?
Electronista reports on a patent filing for an iPhone/iPod touch dock that could allow you to both charge and play video in landscape mode, simultaneously. The patent was filed on September 5, 2007 — near the time of the iPod touch debut. The so-called “dock” looks more like the tiny holder that ships with the iPod touch, with the exception of a dock connector plugged in.
Apple does, however, file patents that it might not ever use — as do most other companies. What do you think? Could this be a new dock design, or is it the patent for the included iPod touch stand? [electronista]
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Apple to release new iPhone/iPod touch dock?
Electronista reports on a patent filing for an iPhone/iPod touch dock that could allow you to both charge and play video in landscape mode, simultaneously. The patent was filed on September 5, 2007 — near the time of the iPod touch debut. The so-called “dock” looks more like the tiny holder that ships with the iPod touch, with the exception of a dock connector plugged in.
Apple does, however, file patents that it might not ever use — as do most other companies. What do you think? Could this be a new dock design, or is it the patent for the included iPod touch stand? [electronista]
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John Carmack planning a “graphical tour-de-force” for the iPhone
Ah, game developers (especially EA game developers, of which id software’s John Carmack is now one, after their announcement at E3 that they’d work together to publish games). They thrive on hype, and live, it seems sometimes, off of speculation. That’s probably why Carmack has told Forbes that not only does he love his iPhone, and not only does he not want to “announce anything specifically,” but id wants to make a game for the iPhone and “it would be,” according to Carmack, “a graphical tour de force.” See what we mean? Ah, game developers.
Anna Kang, who’s the president of id Mobile (no relation), says that any id game they might be working on for the iPhone wouldn’t be a new IP, so that puts it very much in the range of a Doom, Wolfenstein, or Quake game, and considering that another Wolfenstein sequel is being worked on right now, that probably makes it the most likely.
For his part, Carmack sounds really excited to have the iPhone as a platform (especially since he hasn’t always seen eye-to-eye with Apple) — he equates it in terms of power to a PS2 or Xbox, and says that a company could easily shell out $10 million on an iPhone game, be it a first person shooter or a deep MMORPG. But he admits that the 99-cent sales in the App Store can’t support that yet, and it probably wouldn’t be the best thing for id Mobile to pour their resources into something like that quite yet. Nevertheless, we’ll wait and see what they come up with.
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