Animetrics’ new iPhone facial recognition product, iFace, is the new technology being brought forward by the company, and with the company’s FIMS facial characteristics database, the iPhone app will allow law enforcement or military personnel to do field analysis of facial snapshots and possibly identify persons of interest.

The interesting thing is, iFace is the first handheld product that will do facial feature recognition. This app isn’t actually out yet, and still being tested, but really does display some interesting capabilities.

We’ll update you further when we know more about the product.

A little while back I took the Apple sample source code and hacked it a bit so that it had a new look and feel to it. My webapp is Religion Pop, and it sure does suck.

But Apple still accepted it onto their website! Thanks Apple! So be sure to head over to it whilst using your iPod Touch or iPhone, at my site.

The name’s wrong, but it’s still me :).

Apple have just posted its guided tour for the new MacBook Air, and it’s definetly worth a look if you’re considering purchasing the upgrade.

Check it out here.

There’s also a new MacBook Air TV Ad that can be viewed by clicking right here.

It’s been rumored about for months, and finally, Apple has announced a new line of portable computers during Steve Jobs’ keynote speech at MacWorld San Fransisco today. The MacBook Air is Apple’s new laptop which is now a part of the MacBook and MacBook Pro family.

Features of the new portable include being “the world’s thinnest notebook,” at 0.16 inches to 0.76 inches, a new LED backlit 13.3″ widescreen with a magnetic latch. The MacBook Air keyboard is MacBook-like, but with an ambient light sensor. The new machines feature a multi-touch trackpad, allowing the user to double-tap and move. Rotate a photo by pivoting your index finger around your thumb, as well as pinch & zoom.

Mac Rumors has also stated that additionally there’s a 45 Watt MagSafe power adapter, a Micro-DVI out as well as Audio Out, 802.11n + Bluetooth 2.1/EDR. There’s a 1.8″ hard drive for storage - either 80GB standard, or a 64GB SSD as an option. Intel shrunk the size of the Core 2 Duo chip by 60% to fit in the new machine.

The Battery life is approximately 5 hours. No optical drive is on the MacBook Air, but a SuperDrive accessory is available for $99US. There’s also new software being released that allows the portable to “borrow” a Mac or PC’s optical drive, which is sure to make some heads turn. All models feature 2GB of memory standard.

The case is fully aluminum, the first fully mercury and lead free display, circuit boards are BFR free, and retail packaging are 56% less volume than a MacBook.

The new MacBook Air starts at $1799US (1.6GHz model) is available for pre-order today, and is expected to be shipping in two weeks. Additionaly, Apple have released a 1.8GHz model for $3098US.

There’s a question that comes up often in a conversation between me and someone I’ve never met before: “Mac or PC?”. You see, I can’t talk, relate, understand, or tolerate that person, if they are a strong believer in the PC. That’s just the way I am.

But what about those people, that when you actually do meet them, you can’t help but praise/respect them? You know who I’m talking about… FAMOUS PEOPLE! So I spoke to Noah Kalina, a photographer who really made a name for himself creating a film titled ‘ Noah takes a photo of himself every day for 6 years‘ where he literally took a photo of himself daily for 6 years and is still going (I recently completed my goal of doing the same for 1 year).

Noah Kalina

Noah, Mac or PC?
I use both, and I think they both suck equally as much.
Haha, so you’d prefer no computers at all?
I don’t know about that. I like macs a lot, but i think it is more because they look cooler.

You can see Noah’s photography at noahkalina.com.

Yesterday Apple released the very anticipated Mac Pro updates, just one week before Macworld. A few notes gathered about the new Mac Pros (from Mac Rumors:

- Today’s Mac Pro is called “Mac Pro (Early 2008)” in Apple support documents.
- Full Specs and Manual (PDF) have been posted.
- New Mac Pros are already in retail Apple Stores.
- While Apple has standardized on 8-Core Mac Pros as the “base” model, they actually do offer a single 2.8GHz Quad-Core CPU Mac Pro option for $2299.
- Rumors of Apple buying up the high end 3.2GHz Penryn (”Harpertown”) processors were apparently true.
- The 1600MHz front side bus is up from the previous Mac Pro’s 1333 MHz front side bus.
- While the new NVIDIA 8800GT is not yet available in the U.S. as a standalone purchase for old Mac Pros, it is available separately at the UK Apple Store for £220.
- Despite expectations, Apple did not introduce a Blu-ray option.
- Reminder that Apple charges a large premium for RAM for their online store orders, so you will always do better to buy ram from 3rd party vendors. (Discussion)
- Bluetooth is now a standard option

Way to go Apple for this one. Now we just need to hope for the best (touch-screen MacBook, hint hint) during Macworld next week!

I know there are plenty of guides for Jailbreaking Your iPod Touch around, but I really had a lot of trouble doing this to my new iPod Touch, and found that most of these guides only provided half of what I needed to get the job done. That’s why I decided to write this guide which should easily get your iPod Touch Jailbroken!

First off, let’s try understand what Jailbreaking actually is. Just like the iPhone, the iPod Touch is not a writable device, meaning that users really don’t have much control over what they can do with the product. When you Jailbreak your iPod Touch or iPhone, it allows your iPod Touch (or iPhone) to be written to. It can get tricky, but thanks to the team at jailbreakme.com and touchdev.net, this can be done with a little bit of determination.

With the older iPod Touch firmware (1.1.1), it was easy enough to open up thanks to an exploit in how Safari managed certain .tiff files. With the 1.1.2 update that Apple is trying to get all iPod Touch users to install, this has been patched which makes it quite a pain to Jailbreak. Fortunately it can be done!

Here’s a step by step guide I’ve put together with the help of a few other guides I’ll mention later on:

This guide will assume you have your Touch updated to 1.1.2 already, as the first step requires downgrading to 1.1.1 to prepare it for the update.

NOTE: You CANNOT jailbreak it on 1.1.2 through jailbreakme.com. You MUST downgrade to 1.1.1 so get reading below!

---

1. Firstly we’re going to downgrade from 1.1.2 to 1.1.1. You’ll need to download the 1.1.1 firmware which can be downloaded from here (151mb). Download in Firefox as it needs to be downloaded with the file extension .ipsw. Once that’s finished downloading (if you’re downloading at 90 KB/sec it should take about 30 - 40 minutes), plug your iPod Touch into your computer.

Read the rest of this entry »

Over at the Wall Street Journal, Ben Worthen wrote that Apple iPhones were responsible for 0.09% of all Web page views in November! Considering that all the other mobile Windows-based browsers accounted for only 0.06% of page views, viewing the Web on the iPhone must rock.

Via: [TUAW]

Google is releasing a new application for Apple’s iPhone that combines the web leader’s services such as email, search and calendar into a single easy-to-use interface. No details of when the new software will be released have arisen, but we’ll let you know when we do.

Google Maps and YouTube were among the first applications available on iPhone. Apple said last month that it would allow outside developers to create software for iPhone and that it planned to make a developers kit available in February.

Lately I’ve been thinking, and thinking, and thinking, all about problems with Apple products. I know (sadly), that they’re not all perfect, but I’ve really been trying to pinpoint the faults that make me angry - :@. And I think I’ve figured out what annoys me the most.

ONLY 3 USB PORTS!

I cannot take it. I’ll get out my iPod and the USB cord, ready to plug it in and update. I reach behind the iMac and feel around for the spare USB port, and then BAM! None there. But then as soon as I take something out from the back, (whether it be the Eye TV USB, external hard drive, or maybe even the cord I’m using to charge my PSP), I need to plug that back in to be functioning in my normal MacUser mode.

And trust me, I have plenty of USB Hubs but in the end (resulting in then only 2 USB 2.0 ports), unless I go out an spend $50 on a USB 2.0 Hub, I’m stuck with the 3 built in.

The Thought: Wouldn’t it be great if Apple made the default amount of USB ports on the iMac about 5? -I think so.

Apple had really gone quiet with the Mac vs. PC ads lately, directing its attention to iPod and iPhone ads, but luckily, they’re back and funnier then ever.

The three new ads, Podium, Boxer and PR Lady, all started airing just a little while ago, and are getting a very good response, as can be seen from articles such as TUAWs.

You can either click on one of the links above, or click here to see all the ads, but seriously they are worth checking out - very funny!

Yes, its true.
Of course your mad, no one thought that apple could sink this low but they managed. And trust me, its much worse for me.

I don’t want to say this, I don’t want to relive the pain, but of course I must. Ok, so let me tell you my story:

I was sitting at home minding my business when lo and behold, my computer guy rings me up and says: “Yeah, we got your new customized iMac and we’re gonna drop it at your place in say….10 minutes.” I thanked him and hung up the phone. I had been waiting for weeks for my iMac to come in, and when it came I was so happy I nearly relieved myself in my pants….as you do….

So anyhow, I took the 24 inch screen out of the neatly packed box (Which was lots of fun, I must say) and I plugged it into the wall and off I went.

The iMac then asked me which language I would like it to function in, of course I chose English. It then asked me the question I was looking for: Do you have a previous mac? I clicked yes and then waited the 2 hours of migration from my old to new mac. The longest 2 hours of my life, but of course I had no idea what I was in for.

4 episodes of Scrubs later and one migration completed I then moved on to register my computer. I typed in the details and then received a message saying: Failed processing and I thought to myself: well that’s odd… But swept it aside.

As I logged into my account I heard a faint humming noise…it was quietly comforting at first until it became a loud whirring noise. I thought this is either a hardware failure or software, so I ran the system off the start up disc but Oh NO!: My computer came with Tiger not Leopard! I was horrified…But soldiered on, noting to retrieve leopard online.
The computer ran off the disc fine, and still continued to whirr.

UPDATE: For all those who still want to know the answer, it was because a wire had slipped out of place and was caught in the fan. Sadly, it wasn’t fixed on the spot but was taken in to repairs and has still not come back.

This is a great example of little flaws in big companies, I say this painfully but the truth must be told.

(more on the jump)

Read the rest of this entry »

Just today Apple have made a quiet update of the MacBook and MacBook Pro.

This via Macrumors

As rumored, Apple has quietly updated the MacBook tonight to the Santa Rosa architecture with mild speed bumps and the GMA X3100 integrated video.

White 13.3″
$1099.00 2.0GHz/1GB RAM/80GB/Combo/GMA X3100
$1299.00 2.2GHz/1GB RAM/120GB/SD-DL/GMA X3100

Black 13.3″
$1499.00 2.2GHz/1GB RAM/160GB/SD-DL/GMA X3100

Despite comparable clock speeds (2.0 -> 2.0GHz, 2.16 -> 2.2GHz) to the old models, the new MacBooks use the Santa Rosa chipset which boasts a faster 800MHz front side bus over the previous MacBook models. The introduction of the GMA X3100 video card also provides significant benefits over the previous models.

The new specs can now be seen at the Apple Store:

Along with this, apparently MacBooks have already been shipped to Apple Stores, and should be arriving today.

UPDATE 1: This hasn’t been modified on many of the online stores, including the Australian Apple website.

UPDATE 2: The MacBook Pro now has the option to upgrade to a 2.6GHz processor for $250, and also has the option for a 250GB drive.

Halloween is coming up in just a few days, and what better way to celebrate it then making a Mac-o-lantern out of a Mac Classic. Some tape, a can of spray paint, and a graphic later you have the geekiest Halloween display around.

Via TUAW

Hello itsALLmac readers! I am writing to you from my MacBook (lucky I have one), as my iMac which I am currently installing Leopard on is not working.

Let me explain the problem in a collection of beautiful numbered dot-points, so you can get a better understand of what’s going on here:

1. Backed up iMac using Carbon Copy Cloner, that’s all smooth and easy.

2. Put Leopard disc into iMac, hoping to do an Upgrade installation so that I could just keep all files on the iMac on it, and continue with Leopard. However, it claims the internal hard drive cannot be installed onto, requesting that is reformatted to Mac OSX Extended (Journal), which I do, knowing that I have my back up for when this all starts working.

3. Installing fine, finishes after 1h - 2h, asks to Restart, which I do.

4. Computer starts loading up, goes through the standard white background (with Apple logo and spinning dial) loading up the computer, then the standard blue background. However, the blue background does not change, it remains like this, on-going.

There is more so keep reading if you would like to see what happened.
All Updates:

UPDATE 1: I now have the original Leopard installation disk. Put it in whilst holding down C and managed to pull up the original Leopard installation window. I am currently verifying the disk as instructed.

UPDATE 2: Disk was verified as “ok” which is good. I then erased the hard drive completely. Now am installing Leopard onto the hard drive as if it was a new computer. 1 hour 9 minutes remaining. Should be done sooner though. Will keep you posted.

UPDATE 3: All fixed. Yay yay yay.

Read the rest of this entry »