Apple

Apple and Palm have dialed up a nice little smartphone skirmish.

At Apple's annual Worldwide Developer's Conference, Apple announced a new version of the iPhone, called the iPhone 3G S. It's got the same design and pricing as the current iPhone 3G model, but sports a faster processor that Apple says will load most apps somewhere between three to five times faster. It also comes in improved capacities, all the way up to 32GB up from 16GB. •  Apple selling iPhone 3G S at 8 a.m. June 19, AT&T at 7 a.m. •  Where does the iPhone 3G S get its speed? … Read more

Apple has chosen Scottsdale, Ariz., to showcase its latest retail store designs. The new Apple store is opening Friday night and features some firsts for the company.

Pictures of the Scottsdale first appeared on The Loop late last night. With its cube-like structure, the store, which is set to open at 6 p.m. local time, is reminiscent of the company's popular Fifth Avenue location in Manhattan. The difference is, in Scottsdale, the cube is the store, instead of just one of its architectural features.

When looking through the wall of windows on one side, you can see straight … Read more

Editor's Note: We've updated this post to include the fall 2009 version of Apple's white MacBook.

What better way to choose a new MacBook than to round up our reviews of all the latest models in one handy place? We took a look at the latest 13-inch white polycarbonate version--the last laptop to still carry the standalone "MacBook" name, the aluminum unibody 13-inch, now part of the MacBook Pro family, and the 15-inch MacBook Pro. There were not radical changes in 2009's summer and fall round of updates, but the small tweaks all added … Read more

Apple had its own E3 press conference at the beginning of the week, with its newest model in the iPhone line finally being unveiled to the world. The iPhone 3G S, while in some ways a modest upgrade, introduces significant improvements for gamers--some obvious, others not so much. Will it help even further cement their growing position in a handheld games market previously dominated by Nintendo and Sony? Read on.

Faster processor speed, more RAM. T-Mobile leaked the hard 3G S specs, and they're all-around zippier than the old 3G--which Apple confirmed when it promised overall speeds up to 2x faster. This will matter in particular with game load times and game crashes, both of which can tend to plague an overstuffed iPhone. While the spec bumps are relatively modest, the iPhone's game-playing prowess has already been more impressive than early pundits predicted, especially on recent releases like The Sims 3 and a PC-perfect port of Myst. The only thing missing now is...

Proper controller support. Sneaked in under the radar amid the iPhone 3G S news is the fact that the 3.0 software update allows third-party app interfacing with peripherals. While a larger focus on this functionality has been on medical devices, it's now possible for someone to make a clip-on control pad case and to have that controller be usable in any game. What should happen is that publishers gather to designate one universal controller that then gets adopted as the iPhone's "gamepad." The question is, who will make that accessory? For a while last year it was rumored to be Belkin, although it was unclear who would support the device. On consoles, the manufacturer usually settles these issues by making the controller themselves (except in the case of peripheral-driven games like Rock Band).

While it would be easiest if Apple made a gamepad, it's entirely unlikely. The whole appeal of the iPhone is its interface simplicity--too many plug-ins kill the minimalist chic. If a third party makes a controller, there's a likelihood that some publishers would support it, while others splinter off under some other controller accessory. Either way, someone should make sure there's a good consensus. Otherwise, soon enough we'll be buried in plastic miniperipherals, not unlike what's currently happening to (or plaguing) game consoles.… Read more

Assault with a deadly burger, bar bathroom toiletries, perfect strokes, black balls and boba straws, and Asian gangstas are just a few of the topics brought up by today's guest, Mr. Brian Tong from CNET TV! He usually keeps it clean on his show, the Apple Byte, but The 404 is all about letting loose, and trust us--he does. This might be the most perverted, nasty, NSFW, and all around hilarious show EVAR- OMGBBQ!

I don't even know where to begin. Brian Tong, star of CNET TV's The Apple Byte joins … Read more

Clearly, one of the biggest pieces of news this week was the forthcoming iPhone 3G S.

But there were a few items people expected Apple to make official at its Worldwide Developers Conference that weren't mentioned. And sometimes what's not said at these keynotes is as important as what is. Which of these were you hoping for, but didn't get?

If we missed anything, let us know in the TackBack section below.

In addition to the big Apple announcements of new laptops and the iPhone 3G S at this weeks WWDC, other well-known developers used the conference as an opportunity to release some big name iPhone applications. I usually try to balance my coverage of iPhone apps by talking about one game and one useful utility, but with this week's big releases, I'm going to talk about two games. These games are both $9.99, so with the higher price point, I think it's worth it to give you the rundown of both so you can decide if you … Read more

Security experts have discovered two new attacks targeting Mac users, a new version of a worm and a Trojan hidden inside a porn site.

Antivirus firm Sophos on Wednesday discovered a new version of the Mac OS X Tored worm, according to a Sophos blog post.

On Tuesday, Paretologic warned about a porn site that was downloading malware that targets both the PC and the Mac. Mac users get redirected to the pagemac.php page, which downloads a QuickTime.dmg file, the blog post says.

Sophos explained in blog post on Thursday that visitors to the malicious porn site are … Read more