In an interview with NBC’s Brian Williams this morning, Tim Cook revealed some new information about the future of Apple’s manufacturing. More specifically, he said that ”We’ve (Apple) been working for years on doing more and more in the U.S. Next year, we will do one of our existing Mac lines in the United States”.

This interview came soon after some consumers realized that their new iMacs were “Assembled in USA”. Although Tim Cook did not specifically say which of the Mac products will be making the move to America first, we now have reason to believe that he is talking about the iMac.

Keep in mind that Apple has no manufacturing plants in America. Therefore, we assume that we can look forward to Apple breaking new ground on a facility sometime soon.

As of now, the switch will only pertain to one product line. However, it would not be surprising to see Apple become a much larger manufacturing presence in the United States. On the other hand, we would be shocked if Apple did not keep the majority of its manufacturing in East Asia with Foxconn to fuel China’s growing mobile market, and to also allow Apple to maximize profits by using cheaper labor.

Apple stock is up +8.45 (1.57%) on the day.

Would you like to see Apple assemble more of their products in America? Let us know in the comments below.

[ Source ]

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Looking for a gift for a loved one, or even yourself this holiday shopping season?  The new ultra-thin iMacs are now available for order via Apple’s online store.

The latest iMac model comes in a 21.5 inch and 27 inch form factors.  The 21.5 inch comes with a 2.7GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 processor with Nvidia GeForce GT 640M graphics. The larger 27 inch model comes with a 2.9GHz quad-core Core i5 with Nvidia GeForce GTX 660M graphics. These bad boys will set you back $1,299 for the 21.5 inch, or $1,799 for the 27 inch.

Shipping times for the 21.5 inch model are one to three days on average, with some configurations taking seven to ten days.  If you want the 27 inch model it has a two to three week ship time. If you are looking to get a new iMac in time for the holidays, you better act soon.

[ source ]

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The idea here is very simple and it’s very easy to implement. The Zorro Macsk is made by a Chinese comapny called TMDTouch and it hooks up to your iMac via a simple USB connection. They only have a version for the 21.5-inch iMac at the moment, but you do get to choose from a variety of colors and the 27-inch version is reportedly in the works. The whole thing can be set up in about 10 seconds.

Perhaps the more interesting thing here is that it’s not a touch panel in the traditional sense. Instead, the Zorro Macsk uses infrared technology to track your touch input. You can then do all the trackpad and touchscreen things on your iMac at will and the accessory only costs $199. Touch-enabled Windows 8 all-in-one PCs are coming down the pipeline, so this is one way your iMac can keep pace with the Windows world.

[Source]

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“We think consumers who initially planned to purchase the 13” MacBook Pro and Air will turn to the 13” Retina MacBook Pro instead because it has an attractive panel, its price is similar to MacBook Pro and it has a better balance between power consumption and form factor,” writes Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst at KGI Securities. “However, as supply is limited due to panel and assembly yield rate issues, shipment of the 13” Retina MacBook Pro won’t be able to satisfy demand. And we think consumers’ budgets will transfer to new iOS products after Apple launches them, which suggests that overall MacBook shipments will not grow meaningfully on the 13” Retina MacBook Pro.”

Meanwhile, Kuo expects to see a new version of the iPod touch and the iPod nano also for this fall, as well as the rumored iPad mini, a modified new iPad, and new 21.5-inch and 27-inch iMacs. The new iMac will be powered by Ivy Bridge, but they’ve been delayed by screen lamination issues. And let’s not forget that the iPhone 5 is supposed to come out in September or October too.

It looks like Apple and its suppliers are going to be really busy for this back to school season. You’ve got to wonder, though, whether that will hurt potential sales because consumers will have to choose where to spend their money.

[Source]

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But that’s not where Steve Jobs was going to end his Willy Wonka inspiration. When the lucky winner (and his or her family) came to see him at the Cupertino office, Steve Jobs would greet them in a full Wonka-fied outfit. This was all part of a bigger promotional scheme, as it would be used to celebrate the one millionth iMac sold. Apple gets more press, the contest gets them more exposure, and everyone’s happy.

So, what stopped Jobs from cosplaying as Wonka? California state law requires that all sweepstakes not require contestants to purchase a product. That’s why you get those contests where they say “no purchase necessary” and you can write in for a “free” entry. With the giving out of free entries, the Cupertino sweepstakes lost its luster and thus, never came to be.

[Source]

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There was a patent application submitted by Apple that seems to approach that kind of functionality. It talks about a user interface that utilizes 3D eye-tracking. If we take the example of a first person shooter game, you could simply look toward the right side of the screen for your character to turn and look toward the right side of the environment. The same kind of idea could be extended to photography and videography too.

The technology would involve a front-facing camera, of course, but it’d also take advantage of data coming in from the accelerometer and compass to alter the perspective of the three-dimensional visuals being depicted on the device display. The patent seems to lend itself to portable iOS devices, but it also leaves the door open for 3D eye-tracking in an iMac or MacBook. After all, Microsoft is doing the Kinect for PCs too.

To be fair, the original filing for this patent was way back in Q3 2010 and we haven’t seen Apple do anything with it since then. If that’s the case, they may have already abandoned the project… or it could be coming to the iPhone 5, iPhone 6, or some other device in the future. As always, time will tell.

[ source via Patently Apple ]

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As TechCrunch noted, last time Apple was spotted showing an effort in the field of education was last August, when the $999 iMac for educational purposes was presented. However, this announcement is not about Apple’s hardware, it’s certainly about their iBooks and textbook publishing.

Reports have it, this one won’t be a major announcement, or a “Big” one. In any case, MacWorld experts sat around their round table and discussed what might be some topics at this Apple event. Here are some highlights of their discussion:

• Some deal between Apple, textbook publishers, and colleges and universities can be struck, and announced at this event. It’s worth to recall that none of the big textbook publishers are working with iBooks and Apple’s iOS ecosystem in any significant way, though Apple and the publishers have had on-and-off conversations for years.
•  iBooks for Macs might be introduced. The reasoning behind this prediction goes like this: if publishers start taking the time to create unique, custom books for iBooks, colleges may feel that Apple should make those books available to everyone. That is, Apple’s educational content could be not limited to just iPads and iPhones, but would be available across all Apple ecosystem.
• iWork suite may get access to iCloud.  iWork, with its Pages, Numbers, Keynote, was meant as a counterpart for MS Office’s suite and widely considered as needing substantial upgrades.

All in all, Apple has formidable opponents in their struggle for a slice of the educational market, Amazon Kindles (Fire’s, for example) look like they are in much better shape due to their low cost. Will this Apple event at Big Apple produce something big? A new tablet for students perhaps? We’ll see.

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With all this talk of smartphones and tablets, sometimes we forget that we still need, you know, actual computers. The trouble is that typical desktop computers can suck up quite a bit of power compared to their portable counterparts. Not so with the Trim-Slice from CompuLab.

The Israel-based company has produced what they believe to be its smallest and most energy-efficient model to date. The Trim Slice has a paltry average operational draw of just three watts. It’s like it’s barely there. This lower power consumption is achieved via the NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor, even though it is providing a full PC experience.

Remember, this is not a netbook or a notebook. There’s no keyboard or display here; it’s just the PC itself. Even so, the fanless computer rocks a 64GB SSD, 1GB DDR2 RAM, wireless-N, expansion slots, USB ports, HDMI-out, and dual head DVI. They’ve even included S/PDIF for 5.1 surround sound.

Given its small stature and low power consumption, the CompuLab Trim-Slice could be a good candidate for those all-in-one PCs (a la iMac). It would even be easy to mount up in your car. CompuLab is marketing it for “power infotainment systems, digital signage and IPTV, or as a gaming device or desktop PC replacement.”

They haven’t indicated a price, but it should be “lower than a tablet.” Look for the Trim-Slice this April.

[GizMag via CompuLab, Fit-PC]

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During that deal, Apple made prepayments to several suppliers, stating they felt flash memory would be a large part of the future. The arrangement first lead to flash memory in iPods, then all iOS devices, and more recently their MacBook and iMac lines.

What their investments are this time may only be known to company insiders, but I stand by my prediction that the touchscreen is heading to the next generation of iMacs, MacBook Airs and Pros. Looking back to the 15″ to 32″ Touch Revolution conducive multitouch screens revealed at CES, it’s promising. Add to that the teaser for Mac OS X Lion: “…we took our best thinking from the iPhone and brought it to iPad. And now we’re bringing it all back to the Mac.” The OS update’s slogan “The power of Mac OS X. The magic of iPad” almost says enough on its own. Not to mention the patents from last August.

Touch Revolution is a B2B company, meaning they market their massive touch screens to other businesses who can incorporate them into their own technologies, but can they satiate Apple’s demand?

What can I say. I’m convinced.

[Apple, iPod NN]

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Jay Freeman, the bearded fellow behind Cydia told 360|MacDev attendees that he is set to launch an “alternative” store for OSX “within weeks.” Known as “saurik” on the Internet, Freeman seems to be stealing a little bit of Apple’s thunder with this move, because the crew in Cupertino were planning on opening an OSX App Store of their own some time soon.

To make things clear, Freeman jumped on TUAW to set people straight:

“The point is to provide a market for the kinds of “modifications to third party software” that people like writing on jailbroken iPhones, and to allow people to install those modifications in a way that reasonably makes sense. I have no clue why people are trying to liken this to Fink (the APT/dpkg already existing, comment), or what this possibly has to do with AppBodega (Cydia is not an App Store: you don’t get “apps” from Cydia, you get cool hacks). *sigh*”

Apple is known to place some rather stringent restrictions on what can and cannot be sold through the iOS App Store, so the same kind of philosophy will likely apply to the OSX version too. Freeman and his Cydia OSX store would allow developers to sell apps and hacks outside of Apple’s control.

The best part? You don’t have to jailbreak your iMac to get these apps… at least not yet.

[Hexus]

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