Apple has just publicly dropped an update to improve frame rate and graphic performance in Snow Leopard. This is the first Snow Leopard graphics update and weighs in at just under 70 MB. You should be able to find it in the Software Update application. 

Here’s the direct download link. 

Computerworld reports Apple won’t be changing the antenna design for the purported Verizon iPhone coming in January. According to their source, Spencer Webb, “The antenna design is architecturally fixed in the design, and it would take them a while to make whatever the next design is.” The report also states that Apple is likely planning to keep that antenna design around for a few years to match their previous three year iPhone design roadmap.

It makes sense that Apple would not have enough time to design an entirely new antenna for a device supposedly launching in only a few months. An antenna redesign would call for a device redesign, as the iPhone 4s new slimmer casing is based on the antenna not being internal. It also makes sense that if Apple waited until June 2011 to unveil the first Verizon-compatible iPhone and 5th generation AT&T iPhone, the antenna could change. 

When we think Meizu we think iPhone clone. “Good artists copy, great artists steal,” so these guys up in China are good artists apparently. Their user-interfaces appear to agree with the saying as their graphics are pretty hott. Back in 2007, only a few weeks after the iPhone’s introduction, Meizu unveiled their iPhone killer which looked strikingly similar to Cupertino’s offering. It had a metal back, similar UI, touch keyboard, no 3G, but wasn’t so user-friendly and its only marketing was bad PR on gadget-related publications.

Just a few days ago, Meizu unveiled their sequel dubbed the M9 and it may seem similar to some phone announced at WWDC that features antenna issues and no white version. It runs a 1 GHz chip which is fairly similar to Apple’s (Mansfield’s baby) A4 chip, a 960 x 640 resolution (Mansfield’s baby) screen, 512 MB of RAM, and of course Steve Job’s salary maker, multi-touch. Those features are the cornerstones of the iPhone 4. Remember Jobs saying this?: The “Retina display is going to set the standard for displays for the next several years. We don’t think anybody’s going to come close.” Mhmm. Oh! It runs Android Froyo 2.2 and has 3G so everything’s all good, and that was a very nice thing for them to do. 

From the Toys section:

Buy.com through Amazon has the Toshiba Canvio Plus 750GB portable hard drive for $79.99 with free shipping.  That’s somehow less than the 500GB and 640GB models.  The drive has an internal shock sensor to pull the drive heads during a drop.  The internal 2.5 inch drive runs at 5400RPM and can be pulled from the enclosure and put inside a laptop as well.

Will Apple take a leaf from Amazon’s copy book and introduce a version of iBooks for Android? After all, Google will open its Google bookstore in the coming months.

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The block of code above shows that future iPhones and/or iPads are in field testing and don’t need to be activated via iTunes. Essentially, this code bypasses the need for the usual iOS device activation in iTunes for unreleased products so testers can get to their job quicker. Activations are a pain!

The tipster said this code has been inserted ahead of product launches for the past few years.  That means a device which requires activation is being tested right about now and should be heading our way soon.  What do you think?  Smaller iPad?  iPod 3G?  or CDMA iPhone?

via BGR

That is all. 

MacStories links us up with an modder who seems to have an affinity for the EEE Keyboard, but retains his love for the Mac (and a sweet trakpad).  

Would it be so hard to see Apple doing something like this?  We’d at least like the see the keyboard-trackpad combo…but maybe in a top-bottom fashion, more like a laptop.  Magic?

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