Teardown of 4th gen Time Capsule reveals not so server-grade HDD

Oh boy. That RDF must be getting weak around the Poormac because this just doesn't sound right at all. The new Apple Time Capsule was released with the promise of giving Apple customers a 2TB or 3TB "server-grade" backup option is, anything but. In fact a recent teardown of the latest gen Time Capsule revealed a very consumer-grade Western Digital WD Caviar Green HDD found sitting inside.

I'm not going to knock Western Digital's ability to make decent hard drives but Apple is advertising "server-grade" internals and simply not delivering on that promise. This is quite an assholish move considering you're dropping quite a lot of coin for one of these. Ball is in your court Apple.

Macbidouille via AppleInsider

Apple to release mid-range, contract-free iPhone says Deutsche Bank analyst

Oh you number-crunching analyst. Always with speculating all kinds of iPhones to be announced, released, or introduced, however, considering that the it's an analyst from Duetshe Bank, a $350 unlocked iPhone specifically for the pre-paid market doesn't seem far fetched.

The speculated iPhone would be similar in dimensions to an iPod Touch (obviously maybe a little thicker due to the addition of a wireless antenna) and would be offered without a contract. After reviewing the numbers, at a 53% profit margin and entry into the global pre-paid market, it is totally possible for Apple to pursue such a device. That said, I'd highly doubt we'll see on Stateside in the near future.

via AppleInsider

Best Buy's MacBook Air out of stock; New MBA's coming soon?

Well by now the MacBook Air refresh is a stale rumor, but adding more fuel to the speculation fire is the above screen cap from BestBuy.com indicating that the current MBA is no longer shipping. Macrumors is reporting that Best Buy is focusing their stock in their brick and mortar stores but have not made mention when a new shipment will be available.

Honestly, I can't wait to see the refreshed line. Especially if it looks anything like this.

via Macrumors

Apple now selling unlocked iPhones

Well I'll be. I never thought I'd see the day but sure enough, Apple is now officially selling unlocked iPhones online and in stores. But there's a catch.

No I'm not talking about the $650 for a 16GB model or the $750 for 32GB model (shown above); the problem is that it is unlocked but can only get 3G speeds on supported networks. In the US that means AT&T's network. So if you plan on using this with T-Mobile or a regional GSM carrier you're pretty much stuck with EDGE. On the flip side of that argument, if you travel internationally, you may be better off paying for the unlocked model and avoid paying hefty international roaming data charges.

We here at the Poor Mac know you value your hard earned cash and ultimately you want to know, is it worth it? Honestly I'm not entirely sure. I've been using a Motorola Defy on T-Mobile for close to a year now and I miss having iOS. Battery life is abysmal, Google Maps just doesn't work, Android 2.2 was not available on the phone while everyone was getting 2.3 updates, and if you want to sync on your home computer, there's really no clean way of doing it on a Mac- everything is drag and drop. (There are third party apps to help you do this but that's like a car and being told the steering wheel is optional.) However, my fiance's Galaxy S works a lot better than the Defy, has fewer issues with getting updates but she's quite happy using iTunes for syncing her phone, buying music, and arranging playlists. For her an unlocked iPhone is a dream come true and worth every cent.

I don't think I'll be willing to drop $750, especially not for half the features, however $650 (the average unsubsidized smartphone goes for about $500-$550) and being able to choose your carrier does have its benefits.

WWDC 2011 Semi-Live Blog

Engadget, Gizmodo, BoingBoing, NY Times too mainstream for you? Keep up with WWDC with us at the Poor Mac Blog where we ask the important questions: "Can we afford it?" and "Is it worth buying?"

1:00PM EDT/ 10:00AM PDT And we're off!

1:03 Standing ovation for Steve! We love you Steve!!!!

1:03 Gonna talk Mac OS X, iOS, cloud

1:06 Schiller talking Mac OS X growth. Lion demos to come?

1:09 Scrolling gestures. Look familiar

1:10 A gesture for making an app go full screen

1:13 Wish there were video of the gestures in action...

1:14 Full screen really seems to mean full screen. Apps take up all screen real estate, desktop fades away. Interesting concept.

1:15 Face detection for PhotoBooth, 3-D birds.

1:17 Full screen, Mission Control, seems really novel if you're managing lots of Apps, windows and Spaces.

1:20 Mac App Store, built into Lion, to have in-app purchasing and sandboxing.

1:24 Auto-save for the times you forget to save

1:28 Versions: have different versions of your documents. Great if you're meticulous or writing your thesis.

1:29 Next up: AirDrop.

1:31 AirDrop is essentially easy file sharing between AirDrop Users

1:32 Peer to Peer via WiFi

1:32 Next up: Mail

1:33 Mail: Improved searching, and search rule creation. Conversation view. Cue the "Google did it first" camp

1:36 That makes for 10 previewed features of Lion. Sorry think I fell asleep at the wheel there at the beginning. Apologies.
Full screen, AutoSave, Gesture tracking, Sandboxing, Momentum Scrolling, Versions, Mail, LaunchPad, MissionControl.

1:37 4GB download. Only available on the Mac App Store (sigh) Price: $29.99. Available July.

1:38 Scott Forstall will now talk about iOS 5

1:40 iOS has 44% mobile installed market share. 25 Million iPads sold in 14 months.

1:43 $2.5 Billion paid to devs. Android users still pirating apps.

1:48 Improved, less obtrusive notifications. Notifications also on the lock screen.

1:50 Newsstand.

1:51 Sorry got distracted by a picture of Rachel McAdams. Anyway, you get all your magazine, newspaper subscriptions in one place.

1:52 Twitter is a feature now. I am sold.

1:55 Safari now has Reader on mobile. One of the best features of the desktop version, maybe even more useful on mobile.

1:56 Also, Reading List and tabbed browsing.

1:57 Demo of Reader: 20 pg DSLR review from dpreview.com into a single view. Amazing!

1:58 Reminders.

1:59 Reminders can store lists of things, assign reminders to dates and assign location for reminders. Niceness.

2:00 Reminders sync across devices and even with iCal. Cool beans.

2:01 Camera features. Camera button on lock screen. That's gonna be one busy lock screen.

2:02 Volume-up button as camera button. Useful.

2:03 Pinch to zoom on camera app. Also, on-board photo editing, right from the camera app.

2:04 Mail

2:05 Mail: Rich text formatting. Indentation control.

2:06 Mail: Draggable addresses. Search entire message. Flag message. S/MIME.

2:07 Built in dictionary across iOS

2:08 PC Free

2:08 Lots of people care about that apparently. Personally I actually like cables.

2:09 Software updates are OTA. Hopefully not dictated by carriers.

2:10 Calendars creatable and deletable from iOS, as well as Mailboxes.

2:11 50 million Game Center users in 9 months.

2:13 iMessage to compete with BBM. If only BBM actually mattered.

2:17 iMessage integrates well with other iOS apps like the photo album. Works between iOS devices.

2:20 iOS coming out this Fall. Maybe iPhone release around that time?

2:21 iCloud. What is it? Steve is gonna tell us.

2:22 Wish you could hear Steve right now. He explains the rationale of why we need the products they're selling.

2:23 PCs and Macs just devices. iPhone, iPad, PCs, Macs can send/access information to the cloud.

2:24 "iCloud stores your content, and wirelessly pushes it to all your devices"

2:26 Calendars can be shared. Sounds like MobileMe, hate to say...

2:27 Mail account at me.com. No ads.

2:28 Forgot to mention syncing Contacts to the cloud.

2:29 iCloud will be free.

2:30 Apps purchased on one device, automatically sync to other devices.

2:30 Same goes for iBooks. Sync your books and their bookmarks.

2:31 Cloud based backups. Interesting. Done once a day over Wi-fi. Purchased music, apps, books and device settings, and camera roll

2:33 Documents in the Cloud. iCloud for Keynote stores your presentations and makes them available to all your devices.

2:37 Apps can store documents in iCloud. iCloud pushes docs to user's devices automagically. Documents update on all devices.

2:39 Photo Stream. Take photos on iPad. Camera automatically sends camera roll to iCloud, accessible to all other devices.

2:40 On PC uses Pictures folder. Photo Stream also plays nice with Apple TV.

2:44 Photo taken with iPhone automatically shows up on iPad. Just like that. Nice

2:45 iTunes in the Cloud. If you purchased it, you can download it on another device. Nice.

2:50 iTunes Match $25 a year to load up music you own to iTunes.

iCloud to be Announced at WWDC

Well here's today's Apple (non) News: El Jobso himself will be on hand to reveal Apple's latest foray into cloud computing - iCloud. No, really that's what it's called.

As far as tech news is concerned, this has the biggest underwhelming "secret" since Sony announced it's NGP aka PSP2. But for all two of you out there that would like to hear (again) what to expect, iCloud will most likely be bundled as a subscription based music service. The reported licensing agreements that Apple has already signed with major lables EMI, Warner and Sony, suggests that unlike "music locker" services like Amazon's or Google Music, this may be a true service that will allow you to take all your music with you and discover new music where ever your travels take you. (See HuffPo for more rumor mongering, I mean rumored information.)

So as far as what will be announced at next week's WWDC keynote (June 6th) it's pretty much more non-news: expect to hear about the new iOS5, OSX 10.7 "Lion", iCloud, and more goodies for the developers. In fact here's the press release:

Apple to Unveil Next Generation Software at Keynote Address...

CUPERTINO, California—May 31, 2011—Apple® CEO Steve Jobs and a team of Apple executives will kick off the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with a keynote address on Monday, June 6 at 10:00 a.m. At the keynote, Apple will unveil its next generation software - Lion, the eighth major release of Mac OS® X; iOS 5, the next version of Apple’s advanced mobile operating system which powers the iPad®, iPhone® and iPod touch®; and iCloud®, Apple’s upcoming cloud services offering.

WWDC will feature more than 100 technical sessions presented by Apple engineers. Mac® developers will see and learn how to develop world-class Mac OS X Lion applications using its latest technologies and capabilities. Mobile developers will be able to explore the latest innovations and capabilities of iOS and learn how to greatly enhance the functionality, performance and design of their apps. All developers can bring their code to the labs and work with Apple engineers.

For more details, visit the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference 2011 website at developer.apple.com/wwdc.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced iPad 2 which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.

How Good is Dropbox?

So good even Steve Jobs uses it!