Marianne Schultz

Pixel Qi provided demonstrations of its transflective screen for the press this morning and we were able to see it in action. Pixel Qi had first announced last month that production of its screens would start soon, with shipments of the first products to include it in Q1 of this year. With the backlight on, the screen appears to be a standard LCD screen with an anti-glare finish. With the...

CES, as a general technology event, doesn't offer a plethora of Apple-related news though plenty of Mac and iPhone/iPod-related accessories are in evidence on the show floor. While most accessories are not terribly exciting (many of the speakers, headphones, stands, cases, skins, bags, docks, etc. all start to look the same after a while), a couple of items stood out. The first among...

Things are picking up at the Las Vegas Convention Center CES kicks off today in Las Vegas with multiple press events and the conference's first keynote speech, given by Microsoft's Steve Ballmer, who may or may not introduce a tablet device this evening. D-Link and Boxee got off to an early start yesterday, officially announcing the Boxee Box. The new device is a stand-alone accessory that...

Late last week, Palm announced the release of webOS 1.3.1 in its blog, and Boy Genius Report noted over the weekend that iTunes media synchronization is missing in this latest update. Palm and Apple have played a cat-and-mouse game over the ability of Palm's webOS to sync media through iTunes since the release of the Palm Pre earlier this year. Prior to the Pre's release, Jon Johansen explained...

Wolfram Alpha, the online computational knowledge engine that launched in May, now has an app available in the App Store. According to its App Store description, the app "plugs directly into Wolfram|Alpha's supercomputing cloud to deliver the unrivaled power of the Wolfram|Alpha knowledge engine to the mobile environment." While the app still requires an internet connection to work, it...

Prior to the iPhone 3GS, the 2-megapixel camera with a fixed focus lens in previous iPhone models was a pain point for many users frustrated with its inability to capture detail within short distances, particularly compared to cameras in other less expensive cell phones. Developers who created apps using the iPhone's camera often received the brunt of this ire. In particular, this shortcoming...

Cerulean Studios, the developer of the Trillian unified instant messaging and social networking application for multiple platforms, recently described the long wait for approval for its iPhone app in its blog: It's been 60 days since our initial and only submission to the App Store. Unlike many of the horror stories you may have read about, we haven't yet received a rejection notice and we're...

MapQuest has App Store] and includes a 14-day trial of turn-by-turn navigation guidance. After this 14-day trial is ...

Elgato Systems, the maker of TV software and tuners for the Mac, has announced that its EyeTV app is now available in the App Store. The app is made to work in conjunction with a Mac running the EyeTV software and its features are as follows: - Watch live TV and change channels anywhere (Wi-Fi connection required) - Watch your EyeTV recordings - Browse the comprehensive Program Guide...

TechCrunch reports that mSpot, a company that provides ringtones, music, and video for mobile devices in the U.S. and Canada, is now offering streaming movie rentals that are viewable on the iPhone and other mobile devices. Movies are accessed via mSpot's mobile site and payment can be made via credit card to rent movies individually or sign up for a monthly subscription plan. At launch,...

Zipcar's app, which was first demonstrated at Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference in June, made its appearance in the App Store today. The app can utilize the physical location of the iPhone or iPod touch and its wireless connectivity to provide search functionality and common transactions on the go. Zipcar, a car-sharing service with locations in various cities and universities ...

NewsGator, the developer of social networking and widget services for businesses and consumers, now has an updated version of its iPhone RSS app, NetNewsWire, available in the App Store today. Additionally, a beta version of its desktop RSS reader for the Mac is also currently available. These latest versions of its widely-used RSS reader applications now sync with Google Reader instead of...

Two Starbucks apps made an entrance into the App Store early this morning, one - myStarbucks - offering store location capabilities and menu browsing while the other, the Starbucks Mobile Card app, provides a variety of features to manage and reload Starbucks cards as well as a unique payment system that's being piloted in a handful of stores. The myStarbucks app takes advantage of the...

The Register

A number of AT&T iPhone users around the United States are reporting that MMS is already working in advance of the September 25 date AT&T has officially announced as the MMS go-live date. According to accounts from forum members and across the web, MMS has started to work for some AT&T iPhone users with iPhone OS 3.1 out of the blue, requiring no action on their part to get it working. Other f...

An alleged photo of Ballmer taken with the borrowed iPhone, courtesy of Engadget Techflash reports that Steve Ballmer playfully took an iPhone from an employee at a company meeting in Seattle yesterday and then pretended to destroy it: As the story goes, it happened when Ballmer was making his big entrance -- slapping hands, running around, and generally whooping things up, as is his tradition ...

RealNetworks' Rhapsody app has been approved and is now in the App Store. The app, which provides on-demand streaming music, had reportedly been submitted to Apple just over two weeks ago. The RealNetworks blog elaborates on how the app works for subscribers and those who wish to try out the service: If you're already a Rhapsody To Go subscriber, all you need to do is download the app and...

At today's "It's Only Rock and Roll" media event, Apple announced the availability of iPhone OS 3.1 for the iPhone and iPod touch. The new firmware will be able to take advantage of the new Genius feature for apps to help users find new apps that may be of interest based on past purchases and will also allow wireless downloading of new pre-cut ringtones. The full list of 3.1 features and updates...

Apple announced new pricing and capacities for its iPod line of digital media players at today's "It's Only Rock and Roll" media event. Most notably, the new generation of the iPod nano line receives numerous upgrades, including a video camera and FM radio with live pausing and iTunes tagging capability. The iPod touch gets a hardware upgrade for the high-capacity models and a price cut on...

The rumored iTunes 9 was announced today at Apple's "It's Only Rock and Roll" media event. iTunes 9 brings multiple new features, including iPhone app organization, "Genius Mixes", expanded media syncing options, and much more. "iTunes 9 is a great iTunes release, with innovative features that make using iTunes better than ever and iTunes content richer than ever," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO....