Substantiated Apple Rumors?

Hey, it's not my fault that there's a media bias for Apple and it forces me to talk about them a lot. This really is the most interesting news today though. A supposedly well-informed executive at Apple has confirmed a full-screen iPod and an iPhone, to come out in December 2006 and January 2007, respectively. Here to the right is the common rendering for the next-generation iPod, in case you've forgotten. Why is this palatable? He ends with something pretty convincing: Apple needs 3rd party manufacturers ready with add-ons and junk so they can whore out the Apple name for a few bucks, which adds up to big-time revenue for Apple at virtually no cost. Mac OS Ken further confirms the January target release for the iPhone with word that there's supposedly a hiring freeze at Apple to make room for the hundreds of telco managers they'll be needing. That source also claims that we'll see a 50-inch monitor early next year, which does seem a bit extravagant except for the fact that it would match the iTV quite well. So much for my belief that these rumors were all fluff, I genuinely think that we'll be seeing the iPhone early next year, so don't be so pessimistic about it (as many people I've spoken to have been). Apple wouldn't enter this market with a clear plan like when they entered the mp3 player market, so just sit tight and wait for more information about the functionality. In less surprising news, we have word that we'll see Core 2 Duo notebooks next week (at least the Pro model), in all likelihood, along with bigger hard drives, FireWire 800 support (yep, it's back), better graphics cards, and better DVD burners. That sounds like it'll just be a MacBook Pro upgrade to me, but you never know. This is the first time in a while that I've been convinced by Apple rumors though, so I felt that warranted center stage today.

Firefox 2.0 should be coming out tomorrow (I'm holding out on upgrading myself until then rather then getting RC3), and Mozilla Links actually has a really nice, easy-to-follow review of the upgrade for those of you uninformed on what has changed. I haven't seen a better organized rundown of the features before, and it's very visual. I'm still pretty impressed with the upgrade despite many of the features coming from existing add-ons available for download. Google unveiled a new Google Earth layer today that allows you to get a better perspective on candidates in this the upcoming elections across the country in an effort to get more young adults to vote with more information on the candidates. It's actually pretty neat, though only covers Congressional districts so it won't help you for state representatives and such. IBM is suing Amazon for patent infringements on some patents that are so broad I don't even know how they got them. I'm really interested to see how this battle turns out because Amazon really can't afford to lose this battle given what's being questioned. If you're curious as to how far you can push credit card fraud, you'll get a kick out of these real pranks. They'll probably end up making you worried though, which is good because we should all be careful with our plastic. Lastly, Pandora came out with a lite system tray program to stream Pandora music without having to open a web browser.

I only feel like covering a few movie things today. First thing's first: AICN spotted the first four minutes of Borat and some deleted scenes and they are absolutely hilarious. I was laughing long after I finished watching these, and I don't know how I can wait another week to see this film since I'll be going back home next weekend. Yahoo Movies has a couple of clips from Death of a President, which I only mention because I hadn't heard of this movie before but it sounds really interesting. Lastly, what happened with Halo? Universal and Fox simply felt that they were getting screwed on the deal but Microsoft is stingy and doesn't want to budge. Do they think they're crapping gold or something? It's a video game, not an Academy Award contender.

Now for some Monday Madness:

1. From: cassie:
Dramas or comedies?
Usually comedies, but I rewatch dramas more than anything else.

2. From: nutmegnine:
Your neighbor has frequent noisy parties on nights before you need to get up early. Do you confront him directly, call the police, call your landlord, join in the debauchery, or seethe quietly and do nothing?
I'd probably join in the debauchery if they were cool, or else I'd just talk to him politely. I think it's a pissy thing, especially in Austin, to call the cops without confronting them first.

3. From sherle:
Are you more comfortable in big crowds or small groups?
Small groups in general, but I'm not opposed to big crowds really either. I wouldn't be at UT if I were.

4. From zeno:
Do you prefer Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox?
Firefox. Anyone who supports IE is a nutjob (unless they're already on IE 7 and it's really that good).

5. From briar:
They say you learn something new every day. What new thing did you learn today?
I learned that a number of the questions on my sample Probability test are in the book, which is great because he's a jerk and didn't give us the answers.