Broz News

Apple Stores now fixing cracked iPhone screens in-house

An iPhone falls to the ground in slow motion and makes its first impact on a corner. You watch as the cracks branch out over the screen like a spiderweb. If it hasn't happened to you, it has happened to someone you know—and now, if the iPhone is still under warranty, Apple can fix it on the spot at one of its retail locations.

Jim Dalrymple at The Loop has confirmed that Apple retail stores have begun performing this in-house repair with what amounts to a big suction cup in the back. The machine separates the broken glass from the rest of your precious iPhone, letting the technician install a shiny new one.

This is one of the only in-house warranty repairs being done on iPhones. Not only that, but in the past, owners with broken screens either got a full phone replacement or nothing at all. Of course, if you're outside of your warranty and don't have AppleCare, then you'll probably still find yourself out of luck. Still, knowing all the people we know who have shattered their screens, this is certainly welcome news for clumsy and not-so-clumsy iPhone owners alike.

Apple may be dumping NVIDIA graphics for next-gen Macs (Updated)

Apple has nearly turned its entire line of computers over to NVIDIA-based GPUs, thanks mainly to the vastly improved graphics performance of its GeForce 9400M chipset over comparable chipsets from Intel. However, rumors suggest that recent negotiations between the two companies over next-gen hardware have soured to the point that Apple may give NVIDIA a complete cold shoulder.

According to SemiAccurate (the irony of the site's name isn't lost on us), Apple is supposedly done with the "arrogance and bluster" that NVIDIA showed in its proposals concerning chipsets for Apple's next-gen hardware, which should include Nehalem-based Intel CPUs. According to the site's sources, the language used in Apple's rebuke was forceful and unfriendly, and amounted to Apple telling NVIDIA to "get lost" for three or four years.

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Apple tweaks MobileMe with a few improvements

Apple has added a number of tweaks to its MobileMe Web services this week. Mail, Gallery, iDisk, account settings, push contacts and calenders, and Back to My Mac all got improved, and a new version of the MobileMe Control Panel for Windows enables syncing through a proxy.

In Mail, forwarding or replying to an HTML or rich text message with now retain that format instead of converting to plain text—while a number of people probably prefer this behavior, I can imagine there are some who won't be happy with the change. Unread message counts are displayed next to the inbox as well as each separate folder if you have them set up, just like Mail on Mac OS X. There's a tweak for e-mail aliases that on occasion did not show up properly in Mac OS X Mail, and those using iPhone OS 3.0 can search messages on the MobileMe server as well as those stored locally on the phone.

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Apple issues heat warning for iPhone 3G and 3GS
Apple has provided a set of guidelines to help prevent users from overheating their iPhone 3G and 3GS handsets. Although the support page does not directly acknowledge the widespread reports of excessive heat with the new 3GS model, the company suggests the handsets should be operated in temperatures below 95℉ (35℃) and stored in areas that do not exceed 113℉ (45℃)....

QuickerTek launches Apple Juicz iPhone, iPod battery
QuickerTek has launched a new external battery, the Apple Juicz, for iPhones, the iPod touch and other iPods. The 2200 mAh polymerized Lithium-ion battery measures 1.75- x 2.5- x .375-inch and connects through the data port and offers roughly three times the battery life of the iPhone internal battery. The Apple Juicz is rated for an additional 30 hours of music, six additional hours of video or t...

ExactScan 2 Pro adds OCR, barcode scanning, more
ExactCODE GmbH has released ExactScan 2 Pro, adding a professional version of its ExactScan 2 software for scanning or converting documents to PDF files. ExactScan's professional version adds optical character recognition (OCR) and barcode scanning, and can produce searchable PDF files, in addition to standard PDF and Tiff files. The pro version can also handle multi-page PDFs. The latest version...

Amazon Update
Amazon has the best price on MacBook Air: just $1699. Or save $55-$105 off Apple's latest iMacs, or $150-$380 off the Mac Pro Quad and new Quad-Core models. Amazon discounts iPods and a huge selection of digital cameras and HDTV's, too. Save on AppleCare, ".Mac", "Leopard", iLife, iWork, Aperture 2, VMware, Photoshop Elements 6 and Office 2008, as well. And the Kindle wireless book/reader is now in stock at $359. While you're saving yourself money, you're also providing critical MacInTouch support just by clicking through our links to purchase!

Report: Leopard
[Updated 14:30] a 10.5.3 problem affects web browsers; other 10.5.3 issues, compatibility notes and more

Report: Applications
Adobe CS3 issues, Print to PDF tips

Create Events-based iPhoto albums featuring specific people
Learn how to create an album in iPhoto to show all photos from all events that contain at least one photo of a selected person.

Repair incorrect icon associations
Are the icons for certain file types incorrect on your machine -- zip files appearing as disk image files, for instance? If so, this hint will help you quickly fix the problem.

Change color of BBEdit and TextWrangler 'invisibles' characters
Learn how to change the color of the special characters that BBEdit and TextWrangler use to display invisible characters, such as tabs and line breaks.

Mac News Briefs: BenVista releases PhotoZoom Pro 3 photo enlarger
BenVista's PhotoZoom Pro 3 improves its interpolation algorithm for bigger enlargements and adds multi-processor support. Also, LaCie began selling its 12big Rack systems, and Art Text was updated.

Review: MobileStudio for iPhone
This excellent and powerful application for managing files is not necessarily for the average user. But power users with a lot of file-management demands will find that MobileStudio fits the bill nicely.

First look: Zinc Internet video browser
Web browser-cum-Internet-video-player hits the scene. Interesting idea, but not ready to take on Boxee or Plex.

Sites that help you lodge complaints
If you've been wronged or you're just not happy with the way you were treated, there are some sites on the Web that will help you get your voice heard.

Google App Engine misfires
A morning outage in Google App Engine--a hosting service for Web application developers--was resolved around noon Pacific Thursday.

iPhone heat issue much ado about nothing
Some reports on Friday claim that Apple admitted in a tech note to having heat issues with the iPhone 3GS, but that's just not true.

Tour de Tweet: Follow Lance and the Boys Online
The Tour de France begins Saturday, July 4, in Monaco. Here's how to follow the three-week bike race using streaming audio and video, Twitter, Google Earth and other online tools.

Penguin Parents Won't Chip In to Help Handicapped Spouse
Penguins, famous for the lengths they go to to protect their eggs and rear their young, may not be the most supportive couples around. When one member of a penguin couple is handicapped, the other doesn't step in to pick up the slack.

Solar Racing Champs Roll Out New Car
Delft University is back, ready to take a fifth consecutive title with Nuna 5.

With a Name Like 'Luminotherapy' It Hardly Sounds Seedy at All [Furniture]

Philippe Boulet's "luminotherapy" bed is supposed to help you sleep. But since when does light shining in someone's face help them sleep?

Loaded with a variety of multicolored LEDs, you can change the hue of the luminotherapy bed with the touch of a remote. The resulting colors, such as pink, blue and green will make your lover glow with all the vibrancy of a Star Trek Original Series alien babe. Well, that, or they'll give you night terrors of being stuck on a Cylon base ship (before they got all lovey hippie on the humans) or a painfully hipster sushi joint. [phillipe boulet via Unplggd]

Self-Portrait Machine Forces Your Hands Into Drawing a Pretty Picture [Robots]

No artistic ability? Let a friendly robot force your hands into drawing a realistic self-portrait of yourself.

Jen Hui Lia's Self-Portrait Machine takes your picture and then guides your hands into drawing your own portrait. You slip your wrists and index fingers into the straps, hold a pen and the machine does the rest.

It's sort of gimmicky now, sure, but imagine the next generation of this thing: instead of a picture as the source, it uses your brainwaves to put down whatever you're picturing in your head on paper. Who needs talent? [We Make Money Not Art]

Apple's Future iPhone Patents Show Fingerprint ID For Different Gestures, Plus More [Patent]

MacRumors found three interesting patents that point to various new interaction techniques. The most interesting is the fingerprint ID directly on the screen so that the iPhone can see which finger you're using and accept gestures appropriately.

The fingerprint ID also, of course, can theoretically act as a security device so that only you can activate your phone. There's also haptic (physical) feedback when you're hitting things, as well as using the touchscreen as an RFID reader. None of the three are really mindblowing in themselves, on the surface, but if implemented intelligently might make for a big step forward in the iPhone product line. [Macrumors via Boy Genius]

WEEK IN PHOTOS: Ugliest Dog, "Miracle" Birth, and More

Filipino inmates dance to "Thriller," a girl rests 1,400 feet in the air, and an elderly ape has a baby in this week's best news photos.

"Diamond Dust" Snow Falls Nightly on Mars

Ice crystals drifting from Martian clouds resemble the glittering precipitation that falls in Earth's Arctic regions during winter, new data show.

Tunguksa Mystery Solved by Space Shuttle?

Rare "night shining" clouds linked to the 1908 Russian event and plumes from shuttle launches suggest that the blast was caused by an icy comet, a new study says.

Climate change is shrinking sheep
Climate change is causing a breed of wild sheep in Scotland to shrink, according to research in the journal Science.

Moon probe returns first images
The US space agency's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft sends back its first images since reaching the Moon.

Amur tigers on 'genetic brink'
The world's largest cat is down to an effective wild population of fewer than 35 individuals, new research has found.

Robot helicopter takes flight navigation to a new low
While other uncrewed planes fly high to stay safe, this autonomous chopper can plan its way around obstacles close to the ground

Pimped up T-cells seek out and destroy HIV
Researchers have used evolution to create immune cells able to destroy HIV far more effectively than the regular cells our body produces

The odd drink in pregnancy won't harm baby
Lots of expecting mums now say they avoid even light drinking, but the latest study indicates that this may be an unnecessary precaution (full text available to subscribers)