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Infinis Design recently unveiled iChat Pro, a reskinning feature for Apple’s iChat application that simplifies the user interface to be more compact. Designed for users that are comfortable with using right-click contextual menus to navigate the application’s functions, iChat Pro removes the somewhat redundant communication buttons at the bottom of the buddy list, and trims extraneous features from the top. iChat Pro is free to install for all users of iChat. Designer Philipp Antoni recommends users backup iChat prior to install, so that the process can be reversed, if desired, since iChat is not available as a separate download, apart from the Mac OS X install process.

source: macnn.com

Apple on Tuesday released Aperture 2.0, a major revision of the company’s professional photo editing and management application. The upgrade brings in a new, sleeker user interface that allows users to flip between Browser and Viewer modes with a single key press and a heads-up display that makes the most of the screen area while still allowing quick access to editing or navigation controls. A completely new RAW image processing engine is also said to bring out more detail and more faithful color accuracy for imported shots. Performance has likewise been improved with faster loading times and a Quick Preview mode that lets users browse their libraries at speed without loading each entire image.New editing tools also let editors enhance special qualities of an image: Recovery reduces overblown highlights, while Vibrancy boosts saturation without hurting the skin tones crucial to portraits. A Repair/Retouch function similar to that from iPhoto lets users quickly remove cosmetic imperfections just by dragging across affected areas. The Aperture update is also designed to integrate more smoothly with Apple’s modern web tools: users can more readily post photos to their .Mac Web Galleries with formatting for the iPhone and other handhelds. Apple launches the software immediately for $199 through the company’s online Apple Store.

source: macnn.com

Prices on the iPhone and the iPod touch may drop substantially within the next two months, a report suggests. Citing an anonymous source, the report claims that by mid-April at the latest, a $100 price drop will reach the 16GB iPhone, as well as the 16 and 32GB Touches; this would put their costs at $399, $299 and $399, respectively. It is also said that sales of the 8GB Touch will stop completely, but the source does not mention a removal of the 8GB iPhone, which would have to happen if it did not also fall in price.The cuts could happen as soon as this month, coinciding with Apple’s official release of the iPhone SDK to developers. An event of some sort is expected towards the end of February, possibly on the 26th. The view that price reductions are inevitable has been echoed by analysts such as Ezra Gottheil of Technology Business Research, who proposes that Apple must revise its iPhone plans in order to reach 2008 sales of 10 million, a target set earlier by Apple CEO Steve Jobs. In recent commentary however, Gottheil has predicted that the 8GB iPhone will remain, with just a $50 discount.

source: ipodnn.com

Apple’s Vancouver store has finally been sectioned off in the Pacific Center mall, and Montreal residents can expect Canada’s first two-storey retail location. IfoAppleStore reports that the new 6700 square-foot location sits on the second level of the mall, on the Granville side south of Dunsmuir. The space, formerly rented by clothing retailer Holt-Renfrew, was divided up among several shops that will be opening their doors within the next year. Apple has not provided a date at which they expect construction to be finished.Meanwhile, the future Saint-Catherine West store in Montreal will be designed with a similar air to that of the Chestnut Street and Fifth Avenue locations, in San Francisco and New York, respectively. The design will include an interior-liet Apple logo inside of a glass casing, as well as a glass staircase. The reconstruction involves a complete interior demolition, which may be finished by the year’s end.

source: macnn.com

In the wake of yesterday’s 16GB upgrade announcement, Apple has released two new TV commercials for the iPhone. Both concentrate not on the device itself, but rather on popular websites that have been given customized iPhone interfaces. The first is dedicated to Facebook, and shows a person browsing news, profiles and pictures; it claims that the iPhone is perfect for people who cannot stop checking Facebook at their computer, since they can now check it anywhere. The second ad visits Kelley Blue Book, the famous guide to car prices. Here Apple suggests that the iPhone is a useful tool in talking to dealers, as it is possible to check on the going prices for vehicles where a salesman might otherwise have the upper hand.

source: macnn.com

Confirming earlier leaks, Rogers Wireless today began offering its sought-after Communicate Value Pack, the first bundle plan to offer true unlimited web browsing with the Canadian provider. An improvement even on AT&T’s $20 unlimited plan, the Rogers pack allows both unlimited browsing from the device itself as well as 2,500 outbound SMS text messages and 1,000 MMS sent picture or video messages. It also supplies caller ID, recent call history, and voicemail, according to Rogers.The plan adds $20 Canadian (same in US dollars) to the cost of any existing cellphone plan and is limited to ‘feature’ phones; PC cards as well as smartphones either running the BlackBerry or Windows Mobile operating systems are subject to different plans. A separate version of the pack with just the unlimited on-device web browsing is also available, though Rogers has not confirmed the accuracy of the $7 monthly fee leaked ahead of the debut. While the new feature is in part meant to help compete against Bell’s $7 HTC Touch plan, the now official unlimited data plan at Rogers provides an essential component for the potential release of the iPhone in Canada. Rogers has said it would carry the iPhone in Canada since early 2007 but has only gradually relaxed the costs of its cellphone data service, which at one point would have cost nearly $300 per month for just 512MB of data transfer and a fraction of the calling time of the base $60 iPhone plan from AT&T.

source: electronista.com

Apple today doubled the capacity of its touchscreen media devices, releasing both a 16GB iPhone as well as a 32GB variant of the iPod touch. The new capacities allow fewer sacrifices for owners who want to carry as much media as possible. “For some users, there’s never enough memory,” Apple Worldwide iPod and iPhone Product Marketing VP Greg Joswiak says. On the iPod touch, the new storage level allows as many as 7,000 songs or 40 hours of nonstop video; the iPhone now holds half as much in exchange for its cellular functions, which remain unchanged from the original 8GB model.Both capacities act as supersets of the existing capacities, which remain available; both the 16GB iPhone and the 32GB iPod touch sell for $499 and are ready to order immediately from the online Apple Store.

source: ipodnn.com

Developer Brandon Holland recently unveiled a downloadable beta version of his Apple TV Skype plugin that uses a standard USB VoIP handset to make calls through the Apple TV. The plugin is a front-end, and requires the Skype framework to be installed prior to use. Holland offers a fairly in-depth video tour of the as-of-then working features, giving users a technical demonstration of the software’s capabilities. Holland says that there is currently no accompanying documentation at the moment, but that it will follow shortly. Installation and setup are currently on a do-it-yourself basis.

source: macnn.com

Microsoft has quietly dropped the price of its Zune 8 flash music player to $180 in a bid to gain marketshare, according to reports as well as checks with several major online retailers. Though unannounced by the company, the $20 drop makes the device one of the least expensive of the class at its regular price and undercuts the same-capacity iPod nano’s $200 price. No features appear to have been cut from the 8GB Zune, which shares the same Wi-Fi sharing and sync features of the rest of the line and whose 240×320 screen is as sharp as for the larger-screened Zune 80. No explanations have been given for the reasons behind the drop, which occurs just three months after the release of the Zune 8 in November and misses the key January timeframe for price discounts. It also comes far earlier than for the first-generation Zune 30, which dropped to $200 just days ahead of this fall’s iPod refresh.

Notably, Microsoft has remained silent about sales of the Zune line since it crossed the million-unit mark in June and did not break out statistics for Zune sales during its end of 2007 quarterly results, which touted the Entertainment division’s performance but centered almost exclusively on the Xbox 360. Research group NPD has noted that most music players saw a sales decline during the holidays with the exception of the iPod line.

source: electronista.com

A prominent Wal-Mart executive will soon be directing important initiatives at Apple, reports suggest. Kevin Swint, the head of Wal-Mart’s digital media section, is said to be leaving his current company to join Apple this week. In working for his new host, Swint will be in charge of international movie and TV content, a position that is becoming increasingly important as Apple expands its video efforts to countries outside the US. Currently, Canada and the United Kingdom are the only foreign iTunes Stores with TV shows, and neither rents or sells movies.Some controversy may stem from the fact that Swint was involved Wal-Mart’s online video store, which shut down last month and is unlikely to return in the near future. The closing was not initially triggered by Wal-Mart however, but rather by HP, which provided the backbone content system. The latter company cited poor sales, despite Wal-Mart’s shop having only been in operation for 10 months.

source: macnn.com