MacRumors

A recent patent application from Apple reveals that the company is considering adding a proper "At a Glance" notification screen for the iPhone. The proposed screen would allow users to quickly jump to the desired notification simply by pressing on the corresponding notification.

At present, the iPhone's notification lists is a list that disappears when the phone is unlocked. This sort of notification system may become more important once 3rd party "push" notifications are activated, as the number and variety of these notifications will likely increase significantly.

Apple originally had an early version of "push" notifications built into developer builds of iPhone 2.1. This feature, however, was later removed and the final version of 2.1 was released earlier this month without this feature. Apple has not made any announcements if their targeted release date has been changed.

VMware announced the release of the final version of VMware Fusion 2.0 which is a free upgrade for all VMware Fusion 1.x customers and is said to add over 100 new features. The enhancements are listed as:

- More Seamless with Unity 2.0: Application Sharing, Link Handling, Mirrored Folders, Driverless Printing, True Multiple Display Support, and Custom Keyboard Mapping
- Safer Windows on Mac experience with AutoProtect automated snapshots and a 12-month complimentary subscription to McAfee VirusScan Plus security software for Windows XP and Vista
- More Power with DirectX 9.0c with Shader Model 2 3D graphics, 1080p HD video playback, Multiple Snapshots, 4-way vSMP, and Better Linux Support (Unity & Easy Install)
- More Mac-like, More Mac-friendly with all new Welcome Screen, Virtual Machine Library and Virtual Machine Settings, Cover Flow and Quick Look integration, and Apple Help
- Mac OS X Leopard Server now is supported in a virtual machine on Mac hardware

Fusion 2.0 had been in beta since May.

Meanwhile, the main other competitor in the Mac virtualization space is Parallels who recently seeded a private beta of version 4.0 of their application. Beta 4.0 is said to also incorporate multi-core processing support as well as support for DirectX 9.0 and OpenGL.

Both Fusion and Parallels allow Intel Mac users to run Windows or other PC operating systems on their Mac alongside Mac OS X. Computerworld recently reported that shipments for both applications are up 50% so far this year.

Valleywag was one of the first to report that Microsoft will be officially moving away from the use of Jerry Seinfeld in "phase two" of their $300 million ad campaign, though there appears to be some debate about whether or not this was part of the original plan.

The two Seinfeld Microsoft ads, Shoe Circus and New Family, generated over 2000 comments on MacRumors alone.

The NYTimes confirms this plan but also reveals that Microsoft will be taking direct aim at Apple's "Get a Mac" ads in which John Hodgman who plays "PC" opposite Justin Long as "Mac".

One new Microsoft commercial even begins with a company engineer who resembles John Hodgman, the comedian portraying the loser PC character in the Apple campaign. Hello, Im a PC, the engineer says, echoing Mr. Hodgmans recurring line, and Ive been made into a stereotype.

The new ads will have some appearances from Bill Gates but will also show other celebrities as everyday PC users in "fast-paced, upbeat vignettes" about their use of Microsoft Windows based PCs.

The NYTimes cites a number of research companies who felt that the buzz surrounding the first two ads were sufficiently positive and accomplished their goal.

A possible though unlikely image of the upcoming MacBook Pro has circulated on the internet this morning and appears to have originated at German retailer T-Systems.de. T-Systems is owned by Deutsche Telekom, the parent company for T-Mobile.

The image depicts a MacBook Pro with a black bordered screen design similar to the currently shipping iMac. The image itself is very similar to a circulating promotional image (above) for the existing MacBook Pro, though there are some key differences. The MacBook Pro appears to be thinner, and there appears to be no latch and no visible camera. The specs listed on the landing page are the same as currently shipping MacBook Pros. The assumption is that the image itself was unintentionally swapped out on T-System's website.

The size of the retailer makes it unlikely that this is simply a publicity stunt on the part of T-Systems, but the chance that any retailer would obtain early images of an unreleased MacBook Pro is extremely low. Apple keeps retailers in the dark about system updates until the very last minute. Promotional images are only released at time of launch.

We originally posted this to our Page 2 but have moved it to Page 1 due to ongoing interest in the image. The discussion thread is already in progress.

Update: Per MacWelt.de reports: "They've told us that the agency that feeds the shop wasn't satisfied with the product pictures they received. So they've googled for pics by the product name and obviously found some fakes. Due to a lack of mac-wisdom they didn't notice the fake."

AppleInsider details some of the upcoming changes in Adobe Creative Suite 4 which is said to be shipping next month. According to individuals who have seen private demos of the new applications, the updates are said to be "minor":

People privy to private demonstrations of Creative Suite 4 say the update will generally be minor, with only a few new features tacked on to each application. "The lack of compelling new features has been the discussion among many employees and customers that are testing the software," one of those people said, "with many relating CS4 to a maintenance release rather than a complete new version."

Photoshop CS4 will see interface updates that we have previously detailed and also gain a new 3D feature which allows 3D objects to be imported as wireframes. Additional features include a Flash services panel, natural canvas rotation, content aware image resizing and 64-bit support for Windows users.

Other features for CS4 listed include:

- InDesign CS4 will get a new Flash export option
- Flash CS4: new timeline called Motion Editor, object-based motion tween model
- Screen-sharing collaboration
- Kuler (color creation and sharing) and Adobe Drive (filesharing) support

Adobe is expected to officially announce CS4 on September 23rd.

Update: Some commenters disagree with this assessment of a "minor" update based on experience with the current CS4 betas.

The latest NPD Data as reported by MacDailyNews reveals that Apple has had significant year-over-year growth in their notebook sales.

Apple's notebook marketshare in the U.S. jumped up to 10.6% in Q2 2008. This is up from 6.6% in the year-ago Q2 quarter. Based on the chart, most of that marketshare was taken from Acer and Toshiba.

In absolute numbers, Apple has historically reached as high as 10.1% marketshare for a one month period in January of last year, but the year-over-year trend across a 3 month period still seems notable.

Engadget publishes photos of what appears to be a 4GB iPod Nano available at a Dutch retailer for 119. Additional photos have been posted to OneMoreThing.nl.

When Apple announced the new iPod Nanos they announced 8GB and 16GB models. The 4GB model is reportedly a limited run and no further inventory will be available. One report claims that originally 4GB models were planned and that this stock simply represents the limited number had already been produced.

EFi-X is the latest commercial product to allow PCs to boot Mac OS X. A company called Psystar made headlines in April when it introduced its "Open Computer" which was built from generic PC parts and also allowed users to boot Mac OS X Leopard. Psystar advertised the computer as an affordable alternative to an official Apple Mac. Psystar would install a modified version of Mac OS X on their computers to allow them to boot into Apple's operating system. Apple has since sued the company citing copyright infringement.

EFi-X takes a different approach by offering a hardware add-on that allows you to install an unmodified Mac OS X onto certain PC configurations. EFi-X is offering it as a tool for enthusiasts, and not necessarily for those looking to save money:

EFI-X is not for everyone. It is not for who wants to save money, at all. It is for enthusiasts that put expandability and extreme performances before anything else in their computing needs. We heard those voices, and we answered.

Only specific hardware configurations are supported, but if your PC fits those specifications, the EFi-X add-on promises headache free installation and upgrades.

Gizmodo reviews the EFi-X device and finds it lives up to its promises.

Well, I used it to turn my gaming PC into a Mac Pro over the weekend, and I'm somewhat amazed to say this, but it works perfectly. I grabbed all the updates straight from Appleincluding 10.5.5 last night, so you don't have to wait for a hacked patch like you would running a typical Hackintoshinstalled a whole bunch of software and have been using it for several days. It runs beautifully, just like a real Mac Pro.

The installation requires you to plug the device straight into the motherboard, and upon boot does slow down the Leopard boot process (up to 2 minutes), but once up and running the experience is described as seamless. The product sells for $155 and is now shipping.

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) has started an iFund blog covering topics about its $100 million venture capital fund for iPhone developers. KPCB has currently funded five companies with about $30 million of investment capital. Those companies include:

- Pelago social discovery and location sharing through an application called Whrrl which is live on the AppStore
- iControl a home automation and monitoring solution available in Q1
- ng:moco iPhone games launching its first titles this month
- GOGII A new social interaction and marketing platform, launching in Q4
- An unannounced venture launching in Q1

The company is excited about the prospects of the App Store and note that iPhone application downloads for the first 30 days exceeded all other US carriers combined in a quarter.

According to our estimates and M:Metrics data, thats more iPhone application downloads in 30 days than all US carriers combined have in a quarter.* That means a relatively small base of handsets (~12M, mostly US) is dramatically outperforming the other 250M.

KPCB also believes that a more sophisticated set of applications will arrive as developers become more familiar with the iPhone SDK, and claim to "know some of the apps in the pipeline" that will take things to a whole new level.

Several prominent titles have recently been released to the App Store, including Star Wars The Force Unleashed and Spore. Meanwhile, SlingMedia has acknowledged that they are working on their media player for the iPhone. Despite demoing a version of their app for jailbroken iPhones, the company has made no further announcements. We've heard, however, that they are planning on launching a beta version later this year.