While we all know the story of Psystar , the company that crashed and burned by loudly selling non-Apple Macintosh computers with OS X installed, a much quieter and more polite company named Quo Computer seems to be doing just fine. Their mission is to get computers that can run the Macintosh OS into as many hands as possible, and they go about it in a much more reasonable way. Although their PR waxes eloquently about the virtues of using a Mac, Quo creates computers that can run any operating system, be it Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, or any combination of the three. In June of last year, they opened up …

PopCap’s Dave Roberts spoke with TechFlash recently , and revealed that about 25% of the company’s profits are coming from the mobile division. You’d think that the iPhone would be a huge part of that (and it is), but it turns out the iPhone isn’t alone — Java/BREW versions of the games are also very popular for older wireless phones. In that sense, PopCap is a different iPhone game company — rather than depending on Apple and the App Store for profits, it’s a true cross-platform developer. Roberts says the company is aiming for social gaming next — …

This video has been around for quite a long time, but my guess is that you haven’t seen it. It posits how future computers will used for education and literacy. Watching it you’ll be taken by how much they got right and how other concepts got short shrift. One surprising thing is that it focuses almost totally on voice input and doesn’t mention the concept of a touch screen interface. Instead it displays a trackball…

I’ve never used one of the HDR apps, so I was eager to try out this new feature using iOS 4.1 on my iPhone 4. Launching the camera now gives you an HDR option at the top of your screen. It’s automatically set to off. When you toggle the option on, it will automatically switch the camera flash to off. Using HDR will provide you with two shots — one normal shot and one with HDR utilized. For my test subjects I used: A shot of a window from a few feet away. A shot of a window standing at the window. A dark shot using the cat lounging next to the iMac as a model A well-lit shot using one of the other cats, who happened to claim a kitchen cabinet as …

We’re all busy people, and I’m sure that many of us missed the iPod/Apple TV SteveFest on the first. Once again, Neil Curtis , master of cutting to the chase, has created a three-minute version of the 75-minute presentation. Previously, Neil did a very short version of the adjective enhanced iPad rollout ; he’s very good at this sort of thing. This little video (making wonderful use of music) only mentions stores “with people” in them, the new iPods , the Game Center , Ping , and the underwhelming new Apple TV . I’ve been through the full video a number of times, and nowhere does Steve mention just what…

The time has come, the walrus said, to talk of many things. Of Apple TVs and iOS 4.1, of new iPods and Pings. On today’s TUAW TV Live the discussion is sure to wander all over the metaphorical map. As promised earlier, I will have my old Apple TV torn apart and will point out some interesting design flaws that demonstrate why the darned things ran so hot. We have lots of other cool stuff to talk about, and I’m…

One of the things that was widely rumored to appear but ultimately absent from Apple’s music event last week was an extension of song previews on the iTunes Store from their current 30 seconds to 60 or even 90 seconds. According to CNET, we can blame the Byzantine licensing arrangement of the music industry (surprise, surprise). Apple had a deal worked out with Broadcast Music, Inc…

Drop that curling broom and get downloading! Reader Jacques writes in to let us know that the Canadian edition of the App Store has begun accepting iTunes gift cards as payment for app purchases, a policy change that seems to have quietly taken effect back in June of this year. You may recall (or maybe not) that Canada’s iPhone-toting population was previously shut out of using gift cards for apps , although the reasons why aren’t entirely clear. Congratulations, Canada, and enjoy. TUAW In Brief: Canadian

The Mobile World Congress , a huge mobile-oriented conference convening in February in Barcelona, Spain, has been dominated by the iPhone over the last several years. However, there has never been a formal presence by Apple or many major players in the iPhone ecosphere at the event. That’s going to change in February of 2011 when the first Macworld Mobile will be held at MWC to showcase iOS developers. As with the annual Macworld Expo event in San Francisco, Macworld Mobile is organized by IDG World Expo, which is partnering with the MWC parent organization (GSMA) to bring the event to Barcelona. As with Macworld, Apple does not plan on participating in Macworld Mobile. The event is scheduled for February 14-17, 2011 and offers a developer track with a number of technical sessions. Macworld Mobile is an offshoot of this…

There are a lot of weird texting applications for the iPhone, and some of them are pretty hinky in terms of design or function. But Texto is probably the best looking SMS app I’ve seen — it doesn’t do any weird non-SMS text messaging or have all kinds of neon graphics running around. All it does is hook up with your iPhone’s standard texting service to let you get quick shortcuts to your most commonly used people and messages. Thanks to LA traffic, I’m often running just a little late for meetings, and with Texto, I…

The careful readers at Engadget have noticed that Apple cut a few corners (so to speak) on its website documentation for the latest iPod touch. There’s no ear speaker or phone service on the device, obviously, but nevertheless Apple’s iPod touch display units show that the Phone app is still sitting down there in the lower left corner. Searching in Spotlight, according to another screenshot, will bring up the text messaging app, and there’s one more little mistake (look in the Travel folder to see if you can spot it). Apple has since updated the images on its website , but it’s good to know that not even Apple’s copywriters get their hands on the devices before we…

I finally picked up an iPhone 4 last Friday, and one of the best things about the new handset is the beautiful shots I’ve taken with the camera. I’m not a professional photographer by any stretch, and people who have actually done tilt-shift photography might have a whole lot of bones to pick with the “’shopped” version of the technique, but I’ve already had plenty of enjoyment from TiltShift Generator Free . It’s one of a few apps on the store that will edit taken pictures to give them the short depth of field and selective focus that creates the effect. The aptly named TiltShift and Tilt Shift Focus are two other (slightly more expensive) options, but TiltShift Generator Free worked great for just messing around , and it has the added bonus of being completely free. With the free…

Holiday weekend or no holiday weekend: we’re live tonight on Talkshoe , so call in and chat with us. Of course, there were a few announcements of note this week , but that doesn’t mean we can’t talk about anything besides iTunes 10 or new iPods! Bring your interests, your questions and/or your gripes and we’ll lay it down. To participate on TalkShoe, you can use the browser-only client , the embedded Facebook app , or the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client ; however, for maximum fun, you should call in. For the web UI…

Good news, everyone! The software update that was “coming soon” to resolve iOS 4.0’s terrible performance on the iPhone 3G has gone “gold master” (GM) and should be available to the general public next week . I’ve had the opportunity to test this update out on my wife’s iPhone 3G , and I’m happy to report that it does indeed appear to resolve all the stuttering, crashing…

As you may have heard, Apple had some sort of event on Wednesday . In amongst the Big News like iPods and iOSs and iTunes and iTVs Apple TVs, Steve Jobs briefly mentioned AirPlay , a replacement for the AirTunes music streaming system used in the Airport Express multi-purpose device. I’ve built my home audio solutions around AirTunes, so this was, for me, the most interesting thing Apple announced. Details on how the system will actually work are rather thin so far but TUAW has been sleuthing around to try and figure out what we can. First, the best bit. Jobs showed an iPad (running the forthcoming 4.2 version of iOS ) being…