All signs are pointing to a new 3G iPhone launching in the next six weeks or so. The latest is this screenshot that is, supposedly, taken from the iPhone 2.0 Beta 5 firmware. Check it out - within the Network settings pane, you now have an Enable 3G toggle switch. It’s a way to put a little bit of power back into your hands as the user, what do you care about more, speed, or battery life? I personally would love a setting that disabled 3G when the iPhone realized I was connected to a WiFi hotspot.

In all seriousness, Apple needs to launch this thing already. The employees over at the Rumor Mill are working way too many overtime hours.

Here at Gear Live, we are big fans of Pixelmator. In case you haven’t heard of it, Pixelmator is an image editor for OS X that takes advantage of a bunch of different OS X features in a way that few apps do. We love it because, while not as powerful os Photoshop, it has just about every feature the average person needs in their image editing/manipulation app, at a price that is far, far easier to swallow at just $59. Oh, and it does support PSD files, and is the world’s first image editor powered by your graphics card. Anyway, they’re calling this one “Pixelmator 1.2 Draftsman,” and there are a bunch of new features that we look forward to getting our hands on. We’ve got the full release notes for you after the jump.

Apple has quietly made a subtle change to the Apple TV movie experience. Previously, you were able to rent standard definition and high definition movies through Apple TV, and obviously, those rentals would expire if left unwatched for 30 days, or within 24 hours of you starting the movie. However, people have been asking for movie downloads since Apple TV Take 2 launched. Well, all that has changed, as Apple has come to an agreement with movie studios that will see new movies available for purchase and download on the same day that they are released on DVD.

The downside to all this? Well, for starters, you can’t buy the HD versions of these movies, despite the fact that you can rent them in HD. If you have an HDTV, we are guessing that you prefer your movies in HD. Also, for a similar price, you could just buy the movie on disc, and get all the extra special feature videos that are lacking on the iTunes download. Oh well, I guess we should just be happy that we are seeing progress.

Well apparently, if you own a Mac and have iLife 08 installed, you already have the ringtone available on your system. All you need to do is fire up GarageBand to turn it into a ringtone for your iPhone. You can find the file in the following directory:

/Library/Audio/Apple Loops/Apple/iLife Sound Effects/Work - Home/

The file is called “Cell Phone Ringing”. Go ahead and give it a try. For those of you who don’t have iLife, or are running Windows, you can download the iPhone TV Commercial ringtone. Fantastic. However, I don’t think this will be replacing “Music is My Hot, Hot Sex” as my default anytime soon...but it’s the principle.

EDIT: Okay, after listening to the file again, it doesn’t sound exactly like the ring from the commercial, but it’s very, very close.

Read More | LifeClever ]]> 2008-04-30T20:19:00-08:00 http://www.gearlive.com/news/article/q208-3g-iphone-to-cost-199-from-att/ Apple, Cell Phones, GPS, Handhelds, Rumors, Wireless / WiFi

Get this - Fortune is saying that AT&T is going to be subsidizing the cost of the 3G iPhone by $200, which would mean that you could get one of the new phones for $199 USD with a 2-year contract. Now, that isn’t as crazy as it seems, as they do this with just about every other phone that they offer. They just haven’t been doing it with the first iPhone. Now, to be clear, if you made the decision to buy the phone from an Apple Store, you would be paying the full price.

Other tidbits in the Fortune article state that the new phone will be 2.5mm thinner than the current iPhone (which itself is 11.7mm thick), and that it will also include a GPS chip. Pricing will be $399 for the 8GB version, and $499 for the 16GB model, before subsidies. As with all Apple rumors, we take this one with a grain of salt, but hey, it’s Fortune, right?

Read More | Fortune ]]> 2008-04-30T00:38:00-08:00 http://www.gearlive.com/news/article/q208-poll-when-the-iphone-goes-3g-will-you-buy-one/ Apple, Cell Phones, Features, Rumors Alright, so we know that the 3G iPhone will be in our hands in the next couple of months. What we need to know from you guys is if it is enough to push you over the edge to buy. Do you already own an iPhone? Are you happy with it to the point where you won’t be upgrading until it no longer works? Or are you the type to go sell it immediately so you can get the 3G version right away? We know there are even some of you out there who are disenchanted with this whole iPhone thing, and you guys stick with your Blackberrys, Windows Mobile phones, etc. In any case, let us know how all these recent iPhone rumors are affecting your psyche.

The Apple Store online went down again this morning, and when it came back up, we were graced by the presence of updated iMacs. For those keeping count, the update finally brings the Intel Core 2 Duo Penryn processors to the iMac, and the entire line also gets a 1066 MHz front-side bus and 6MB L2 cache. Pricing are remaining the same, so for $1,199 you walk away with a 20-inch iMac sporting a 2.4GHz processor, 1GB RAM, 250GB hard drive, and ATi Radeon HD 2400 XT graphics card. If you would rather go the 24-inch route, you can get a 3.06GHz processor, 2GB RAM, 320GB hard drive, and a 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS. While the internals have changed, don’t expect to see anything new on the outside. These are still the same aluminum and glass beauts we saw last August. Check out the unboxing video after the jump.

Read More | iMac product page ]]> 2008-04-28T21:25:00-08:00 http://www.gearlive.com/news/article/q208-3g-iphone-details-and-theres-at-least-one-in-seattle/ Apple, Cell Phones, GPS, Handhelds, Rumors, Wireless / WiFi We’ve been trying not to stir the iPhone rumor pot too much lately, but it seems like details are starting to come out that we believe may just be legitimate. Ryan over at Engadget heard a few things from a trusted source that match up with a couple of things we’ve heard, plus he got a few things we weren’t sure about.

For starters, we had heard that the 3G iPhone would likely be just a tad thicker than the current model, which seems to match up with what we read. Physically, Apple may be doing away with the two-toned back color of the iPhone, opting instead for a smooth black finish. The headphone jack will no longer be recessed into that hole of frustration, and lastly, the thing will have full-on GPS.

Engadget is saying that the next iPhone could ship as early as July. We are thinking it could be as early as June. We know for a fact that there is at least one person here in Seattle who has one, and that the person doesn’t work for Apple. Apple typically doesn’t seed these things outside of their organization until they are in the last phase of testing. That leads us to believe that these are just about ready to launch. What do you think? This is all a bit too exciting for us, as we die a little inside with each day that passes where we have to use EDGE on our iPhone.

Read More | Engadget ]]> 2008-04-25T22:27:00-08:00 http://www.gearlive.com/news/article/q208-poll-does-windows-on-a-mac-affect-your-pc-purchasing-decisions/ Apple, Software In light of the news that Parallels has sold over 1 million copies of their Parallels Desktop for Mac software, we figured we’d gauge the pulse of the Gear Live community to see what you guys think. The other day, Apple reported some amazing sales figures as far as the Mac goes. Desktops and portable sales are up. We are thinking there is a connection between those numbers and the fact that Parallels - which lets you run Windows inside of OS X - has been selling to well.

So we want to know, how does the fact that you can run Windows right on your Mac, and inside of OS X, affect your PC purchasing decisions?

“Parallels Desktop not only broke down the barrier between the Mac and PC worlds, it also broke down the barrier that kept desktop virtualization from becoming a mainstream technology for consumers and professional users” said Serguei Beloussov, CEO of Parallels. “We will continue innovating to extend our position as the desktop virtualization leader and provide our users with the fastest, easiest and most seamless solution available.”

Now, don’t get us wrong - we know that Parallels can also run Linux and other operating systems as well - but seriously, the success if all about the fact that you can run Windows apps right alongside your Mac apps. Congrats are in order. If you haven’t yet tried it yet, here’s a Parallels discount coupon.

Check out the 24k MacBook Air gallery for more images.

In order to install Twinkle, you’ll need to jailbreak your iPhone, and then add “http://www.polarbearfarm.com/repo/” to your Installer.app sources list. We’ve compiled a few screenshots of Twinkle, which you can find in our Twinkle gallery.

As part of yesterday’s Tuesday update, Apple finally released the much-delayed Final Cut Server. Originally announced at NAB 2007, many expected it to be available sometime in mid-2007. Now, just about a year later, the product is finally ready for consumption. According to Apple, Final Cut Server is “a scaleable server application...allows searching across multiple disks and SAN volumes and enables viewing, annotation and approval of content from anywhere using a PC or Mac.”

As for pricing, you can expect to pay $999 USD for a one-server license with 10-concurrent client licenses. If that’s not enough for you, you can get a copy with unlimited client licenses for $1999. You can pick up Final Cut Server now from the Apple Store, or any authorized Apple reseller.

We’ve got the system requirement for you after the jump.

Read More | Final Cut Server product page ]]> 2008-04-09T17:58:00-08:00 http://www.gearlive.com/news/article/q208-3g-iphone-launching-within-60-days/ Apple, Cell Phones, Handhelds, Rumors, Videos, Wireless / WiFi

In the above video, the main throwback into gadget news, Walt Mossberg, mentions that the iPhone will be 3G sometime in the next 60 days. Now we know, we talk about analysts making such claims all the time, but in case you didn’t know, Walt Mossberg is pretty much the guy that gets to play with all these things first. Before anyone else in the industry we mean. So when he throws out a claim like this, we are of the opinion that the grain of salt that you need to take it with is a lot smaller than all the other guys. Oh, and this goes along with our story that Apple may have placed the order for 3G iPhones, and the fact that iPhones seem to be sold out at a bunch of Apple Stores. It just makes sense.

The question is, once a 3G version of the iPhone is made available from Apple, are you buying?

EDIT: Mossberg has since said his comment was just based on the speculation that we all are under, however, that said - it’s Walt. You know this guy is under NDA. Even if it was prediction-based, rather than a slip of the tongue, the evidence is all around us.

Read More | Beet.tv via 9to5 Mac

Read More | My Touch Keys Product Page ]]> 2008-03-28T16:57:00-08:00 http://www.gearlive.com/news/article/q208-show-your-mac-pride/ Apple, Clothing, Design, Misc. Tech Want to show that you are old school Apple? This keyboard pin shows that you were around way before thin became in. Acorn Studios features many products made from old electronics and fashioned into geekware, like circuit board earrings and business card holders, keyboard key chains and jewelry, and magnet sets. Temporarily sold out, contact them to reserve your Mac-Pride pin (and leave your American flag lapel pin in your other suit) for $4.95.

Read More | Acorn Studios ]]> 2008-03-26T16:56:00-08:00 http://www.gearlive.com/news/article/q208-3g-iphone-ordered-by-apple/ Apple, Broadband, Cell Phones, Handhelds, Rumors We’ve all been expecting Apple to release a 3G version of the iPhone at some point during this year. It turns out, it may be coming sooner rather than later. Ken Dulaney, analyst for Gartner, is saying that he has heard from sources over in Asia that Apple has placed an order for 10 million 3G iPhones. Even more interesting is that these would be 10 million on top of the current 10 million that Apple hopes to sell of the current iPhone version in 2008. If this is true, we’d expect to hear about it within the next few months. Maybe around the time that the iPhone 2.0 firmware upgrade is released, hmm?

Dulaney also mentioned that the 3G version of the iPhone may use an OLED screen, which would result in an improvement in battery life. Hey, if Apple went with EDGE for the current iPhone due to battery issues, it would make sense that in their leap to 3G, they’d try and conserve as much battery life as possible, right?

While we won’t know for sure when we will see a 3G model of the iPhone, I personally believe it is a safe bet that we will be seeing one within the next few months. The iPhone is nine months old, and while it is still a marvel, 9 months is a long time to go in the cell phone industry without seeing an upgrade. Apple also knows that 3G is a glaring omission from the current model. After all, there was a collective groan heard around the tech world when it was introduced back at MacWorld 2007 due to it’s lack of 3G. Even 14 months ago it was a huge letdown. Too much time has passed since then.

Bottom line, if you are in the market for an iPhone, but aren’t in the “need to have it now” mindset, you may want to wait a while.

Read More | iPod Observer via MacRumors

However, our pal Xavier over at Notebooks.com has recently experienced what has to be one of the oddest bouts of bad luck with Apple products I’ve ever seen. From two dead iMacs, to a completely dead MacBook Pro battery, to multiple iPhones malfunctioning. To top all that off, he is even experiencing the delay of a third-party Apple accessory he is waiting on, because the manufacturer is saying Apple is taking their time on certifying the product.

It happens to all companies out there friends. Even the “almighty” Apple isn’t immune. Hit the Read More link below for the full scoop.

Read More | Notebooks ]]> 2008-03-25T20:03:00-08:00 http://www.gearlive.com/news/article/q108-apple-releases-airport-express-with-80211n/ Apple, Broadband, PC / Laptop, Wireless / WiFi

We’ve been expecting an updated Airport Express from Apple for a few days now, after an image was leaked out of Switzerland. As it turns out, the new Airport Express with 802.11n support is now on sale in the US Apple Store. Yeah, on a Monday no less. In case you don’t know, the Airport Express is a small wireless router that supports up to 10 clients at a time, and also features printer sharing and AirTunes. That means you can stream your iTunes content to the device, and have it play through a connected speaker system. With 802.11n support, this is now the perfect travel companion, as long as you don’t mind not have a directly wired Ethernet connection to your computer.Or, if you already have an 802.11n network set up, you can now pick up a refurbished Airport Express model and use it to set up a secondary G network. The Airport Express will cost you $99, while refurbs are $79.

We have the full press release after the break.

Read More | Airport Express product page ]]> 2008-03-17T17:59:00-08:00 http://www.gearlive.com/news/article/q108-iphone-dev-team-jailbreaks-and-unlocks-iphone-20/ Apple, Cell Phones, Handhelds, Mods / Hacks, Software

In an absurd turn of events, the iPhone Dev Team has announced that they’ve completely unlocked the upcoming iPhone 2.0 software that we are all waiting to get access to come this June. Even better, it is a full unlock as opposed to a simple jailbreak. Custom hacked firmware, ready to run and install any application, whether is is unsigned or “Apple Approved.” Better still, the Dev Team believes that this is a hole that Apple is going to have a very difficult time closing. I guess I should have known when my pal Nate True informed me a while back that, until Apple releases new iPhone hardware, the method used for breaking in will continue to work, regardless of any changes made to the software. This is all part of the Pwnage Project.

We love it.

Read More | ModMyiFone ]]> 2008-03-12T20:08:00-08:00