The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

In traditional photography, the time elapsed between the shutter snap and the careful, loupe & light table examination of the captured images for some unexpected surprise or Cartier-Bresson's "decisive moment" might be days or weeks. With photographer David Bergman's massive panorama of Tuesday's presidential inauguration, the challenge wasn't in waiting for the darkroom process to complete (although the Gigapan software did crank away on his MacBook Pro for over six hours to generate the 1,474 megapixel, 2 gigabyte master file); it was combing through the enormous image to discover those moments Bergman didn't even know he had photographed. Several commenters on Bergman's blog have already found themselves or family members in the crowd.

One moment that Bergman did discover quickly: a prominent attendee of the inauguration, 'bow-syncing' cellist Yo-Yo Ma, was caught in the panorama making an image of his own, using a familiar-looking smartphone. See the video zoom below for the context of Ma's snapshot in the larger image.

As digital imaging has replaced film photography for newsgathering and journalism, there have been counterexamples of newsworthy images that would have long been deleted except for the fact that they were shot on film instead of on memory cards. In this case, the image of Yo-Yo Ma and his phone wouldn't have been preserved, except that it was captured by chance and 'mined' out of the massive, frozen decisive moment.

Image & zoom video used with permission of the photographer; all rights reserved.

The first generation of iPod nano models may have been small and sleek, but they also apparently had an image problem -- mainly, that it rapidly grew difficult to see the screen after the nicks and scratches began to accumulate on the face of the player. As far back as 2005, users expressed their displeasure over the nano's likelihood for damage, including cracks in the screen in some cases.

Thanks to a now-settled class action lawsuit, nano owners who experienced the scratchies can apply for a refund of $15 (if the iPod shipped with a slip case, as later ones did) or $25 (for no-case shipments). You can get all the details from the settlement website. Refunds may take up to a year (!) to arrive.

[via AppleInsider]

The next time someone calls you a pencil-necked geek, take comfort in the knowledge that the humble pencil can be used to do wonderful things, especially if you happen to have a few of them lying around plus some heavy-duty rubber bands. In fact, with the kind of ingenuity displayed by the Geeky Gadgets team, you can whip up one delightful iPhone or iPod touch stand. The same design could work with sturdy twigs and twine, if your office supply oversight is too strict to allow the pencil version -- impress your cubicle-mates with your Adirondack outdoorsy style.

In a similar vein to the binder-clip stands featured on Cult of Mac and Instructables, this stand does a nice job of reusing found materials. If you've got a favorite iPhone stand made from atypical structural items, throw it into the TUAW Flickr feed.

Thanks Ged!

Above the fold headline: Apple blew by the analyst estimates again. Conference call coming up!
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Apple Reports First Quarter Results

Best Quarterly Revenue and Earnings in Apple History

iPod Sales Set New Record

CUPERTINO, California-January 21, 2009-Apple® today announced financial results for its fiscal 2009 first quarter ended December 27, 2008. The Company posted record revenue of $10.17 billion and record net quarterly profit of $1.61 billion, or $1.78 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $9.6 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.58 billion, or $1.76 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 34.7 percent, equal to the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 46 percent of the quarter's revenue.

In accordance with the subscription accounting treatment required by GAAP, the Company recognizes revenue and cost of goods sold for iPhone™ and Apple TV® over their economic lives. Adjusting GAAP sales and product costs to eliminate the impact of subscription accounting, the corresponding non-GAAP measures* for the quarter are $11.8 billion of "Adjusted Sales" and $2.3 billion of "Adjusted Net Income."

Apple sold 2,524,000 Macintosh® computers during the quarter, representing nine percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold a record 22,727,000 iPods during the quarter, representing three percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Quarterly iPhone units sold were 4,363,000, representing 88 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter.

"Even in these economically challenging times, we are incredibly pleased to report our best quarterly revenue and earnings in Apple history-surpassing $10 billion in quarterly revenue for the first time ever," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO.

"Our outstanding results generated over $3.6 billion in cash during the quarter," said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's CFO. "Looking ahead to the second fiscal quarter of 2009, we expect revenue in the range of about $7.6 billion to $8 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share in the range of about $.90 to $1.00."

Apple will provide live streaming of its Q1 2009 financial results conference call utilizing QuickTime®, Apple's standards-based technology for live and on-demand audio and video streaming. The live webcast will begin at 2:00 p.m. PST on January 21, 2009 at www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/earningsq109/ and will also be available for replay for approximately two weeks thereafter.

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There's a bit of a celebration/commiseration hangover here in the US of A today, with the exact taste depending on your point of view. As always, the fine duo behind the Joy of Tech comic have distilled the Internet's mood down to a four-panel screenful of truth. Regardless of your political persuasion or your technology history, it's high time for us all to reach across the aisle and recognize that we really do agree on what's important.

Aside from laughter, that is. (Is the guy with the pocket protector supposed to remind us of someone in particular?)

Thanks Snaggy & Nitrozac

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QuickTime 7.6 is in the wild. Released today via Software Update and on Apple's support site, the new version "includes changes that increase reliability, improve compatibility and enhance security." It also makes your whites whiter and your brights brighter while helping you avoid embarrassing social situations.

More details via the update page:

Video: Improves single-pass H.264 encoding quality; Increases the playback reliability of Motion JPEG media

Audio: Improves AAC encoding fidelity; Audio tracks from MPEG video files now export consistently

Application Support: Improves compatibility with iChat and Photo Booth

As far as the security updates are concerned, the word from Ryan Naraine at ZDnet is that this patch closes several potentially serious holes that could have been exploited by malicious URLs or custom-payload movie files to execute code on target machines. Four of the seven issues addressed in this update were reported to Apple via the Zero Day Initiative, which encourages responsible disclosure of vulnerabilities by providing cash bounties for the researchers involved.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in.

Yesterday's Boy Genius Report post citing the top ten deficiencies of the iPhone (no copy & paste, no video recording, and more) has generated more than 100 responses, some suggesting a fix for many failings (jailbreak the phone) and others hopping on the Blackberry or Palm Pre bandwagons in the hope that competition for the iPhone will spur more software innovation from Apple. While the App Store may be the hottest thing since that soldering iron you accidentally left turned on that ignited your Dad's workbench (and that's why you're not allowed in the garage anymore), even the sneakiest third-party developers can't effectively replace what Apple has failed to provide.

Given the sense of pent-up frustration from some (but not all) iPhone 3G owners over a laundry list of things the phone doesn't do, or doesn't do well, here's your chance to cheer or castigate Apple in the hopes of a brighter day to come. Vote in our poll and comment below with your top priorities for improvements -- or, if you're a happy camper, your favorite feature of today's iPhone.



[via Smoking Apples/Twitter]

Second Update: You can also use the free SHOUTcast Radio [App Store link] to listen to WTOP for Inauguration Day coverage on your iPhone or iPod touch. The stream works great with EDGE, 3G, and WiFi. (SHOUTcast is published by AOL, the parent company of this blog.)

Update: Late word is that the Ustream video viewer has made it to the App Store today, so you might be able to stream the inaugural coverage after all. We're downloading it now and will have a full review up tomorrow morning. Joost is also planning to stream the CBS coverage, so that should work on your iPhone as well.

Among the hundreds of thousands of celebrants descending on Washington, D.C. for tomorrow's big day, there must be at least a few iPhone owners. What might they find in the App Store, we wonder, to improve the visit?

The Inauguration Guide iPhone app (all app links open iTunes), developed by PointAbout and sponsored by a D.C. law firm and communications consultancy, aims to give visitors to the District everything they need to find their way around the city in the midst of the crowds and commotion. Although the front screen of the app is a simple countdown and distance-to-the-Capitol readout, the data gallery includes parking, public transport and restaurant info. The app is free, so it's certainly worth adding to your toolbelt if you're attending the festivities.

If you already know your way around but you'd like an easy tool to relay your experiences, the Inauguration Report app (also free) might be your ticket. You can send your impressions in text, picture or audio form to the coverage team at CBS News and NPR for possible inclusion in the reporting of the event.

For $0.99 each, you could pick up a guide to the inaugural event schedule, a comprehensive photo and speech gallery or a countdown clock that includes press coverage and citations from the US Constitution (awful handy). Still don't have a place to sleep? It's probably far too late to make a difference, but the free Crash the Inauguration app provides links to room listings, places to eat, video links and more. If you want a pocket reference to the country at large, you've got a $2.99 option with America Deluxe, a reference app that promises rapid updates immediately after the inauguration is complete.

While you've got a full range of options for audio coverage of the inauguration on your iPhone (NPR Mobile, Public Radio Tuner, TalkRadio, moodio.fm), video is a bit more challenging -- many sites are streaming, but few if any will work for your handheld. The official YouTube channel will work, but that won't have live feeds. The recently TechCrunch'ed/pre-announced uStream app for the iPhone isn't in the store yet (you can send in a request for an ad-hoc build, but they're probably well past the 100-device limit by now), although it looks very tempting. [See update above.]

Comments report that Joost will offer streaming of the ceremonies, and there's a page up on the site for the stream. The SlingPlayer app for iPhone is still a month or two away, so for live TV -- if you happen to have a Windows PC with the Orb tuner card -- you're looking at the $9.99 OrbLive app for streaming some C-SPAN to your spot on the National Mall.

Got your iPhone in Washington? Send a tweet our way and let us know how the 3G coverage holds up from your iPhone. Oh, and don't forget to take a few pictures.

One shining year -- that's how long the iPhone-optimized iGoogle search page hung around, and now we must tell it goodbye. Introduced in January 2008, the customized iGoogle UI for Mobile Safari provided a single-column view and easier navigation for iPhone users. As Christina noted earlier today on Download Squad, the sleek UI has been replaced with the unified mobile format for iGoogle that renders similarly on most mobile browsers, including Google's own Webkit-based Android browser (which previously had benefited from the Webkit-tweaked front page for the iPhone).

The unification of the mobile iGoogle interface may simply be an effort by Google to level the playing field instead of having the iPhone as a most-favored-device, or it might be part and parcel of the big G's shaving down on costs by eliminating offerings like Jaiku, Dodgeball and Google Notebook. Either way, if you're mourning the loss of your custom iGoogle look, let us know below.

Last week's talkcast was a star-studded affair, with special guests Ged Maheux of Iconfactory and Rob & Josh from Welcome to Macintosh; everyone had a great time recalling the fun and excitement of Macworld Expo. You can download the show from Talkshoe or subscribe in iTunes.

Tonight, the show is back at 10 pm ET on Talkshoe; however, considering the big Apple news of the week, we're going to take up most of the show by playing back your audio get-well cards for Steve Jobs -- we got over 60 messages of support for Steve and I hope to play many of them tonight. Of course, we'll also make time for your live comments, questions and suggestions. If the audio playback and Talkshoe don't play well together, we'll move the show to Ustream or find another way to include your contributions.

To participate on TalkShoe, you can use the browser-only client, or you can also use the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client; however, for maximum fun, you should call in. For the web UI, just click the "TalkShoe Web" button on our profile page at 10 pm Sunday. To call in on regular phone or VOIP lines (take advantange of your free cellphone weekend minutes if you like): dial (724) 444-7444 and enter our talkcast ID, 45077 -- during the call, you can request to talk by keying in *-8. Talk with you then!