The answer was… it didn’t take long. Apple apparently sent the company a nice “we will sue you into ten generations of poverty if you make this collectible figure” letter. In Icons has now announced that it will not sell the action figure after receiving the legal letters from Apple and the Jobs family.

The man behind the action figure company still thinks he thinks he is not breaking the law to make the collectible figure and only made it as a tribute to Jobs. However, he says that he has decided to cancel plans to make the action figure to consider the feelings of the Jobs family. Anyone who pre-ordered the figure will receive a refund.

[In Icons via PC World]

The portrait was made by Montreal-based artist Olivier Lefebvre (pictured above), who used 3,750 apples to create the portrait. All of the apples were rotting and thus not fit for consumption, so no waste here. Here’s a shot of Olivier working on the piece:

And here’s another shot of the finished portrait:

You can check out the original pics along with Olivier’s other work on his website. Rest in peace, Mr. Jobs.

[via Geeks are Sexy via Oddity Central]

From his earliest garage innovations to the multi-billion dollar juggernauts of Apple and Pixar, Steve always brought joy to our hearts and minds. We here at Technabob send our sincerest condolences to Steve’s family. He was a great man taken from us way too soon.

And one more thing…

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

[Image Credit: Chris Tsevis]

Steve Jobs has done a lot while he was at the helm of Apple. Aside from making Apple and iPods and iPhones more like a household name, he’s also managed to inspire a lot of people with his different brand of leadership. Jobs has been hailed as a visionary, and I believe, rightly so.

Someone who obviously agrees with me is Joseph Tame, a runner who wanted to do something special to pay tribute to Jobs. Armed with 2 iPhones and an app called RunKeeper, Tame ran 21 kilometers through central Tokyo to recreate a GPS path version of the well-known Apple logo.

In a blog post on his site, Tame talks of how Apple has changed his life and how grateful he was to Jobs:

It’s for this that I’d like to personally show my appreciation to Steve for his vision and leadership, which has made a direct positive impact upon my life. His work has also served to revolutionize the mobile phone industry, something that was desperately needed here more than anywhere. I’d like to wish Steve all the best, and hope that his health improves fast now he’s able to focus more on getting well again.

[via Geeky Gadgets]

The Steve Jobs Limited Edition 12-inch Collectible Figurine includes a 1/6th scale sculpted Steve Jobs head and a matching 12-inch figure body. There are other tiny items included, such as the iMac, Magic Mouse, Bluetooth Keyboard, iPhone 4, iPad 2, a desk, a chair, and Steve’s outfit (New Balance 992 sneakers, black T-shirt and jeans).

I wonder if Apple will shut this down as well. It’s possible, but since the retailer is somewhat mysterious in its ways, it might actually sell out before the corporate giant flexes its muscles and makes it history.

No word on where you can get your hands on this yet, but with an Apple-like price of $160 (USD), you’ll have to be a real Apple fanatic to want to buy one.

[Toy Haven via This Isn't Happiness]

If you’re wondering how long it will take for Apple or Lucas to demand that this be yanked from Society6, then it might already be too late as I have trouble finding it on their site. Nevertheless, it was an interesting mashup between two cultural phenomena for the short time it was available for sale.

If you really wanted this for your iPhone, too bad. But you can take comfort in all of the other iPhone skins that are available over at Society6, including some pretty cool Star Wars-themed ones. Liam Brazer’s pixel Darth Vader and Stormtrooper skins are very distinctive.

[via Uncrate]

As predicted, the new iPad 2 will feature a svelte new body design (which looks a whole lot like the pics I shared last night), with tapered edges that not only make it thinner, but less likely to slip out of your hands. The new case measures 8.8mm thick compared to 13.4mm on the original. To put that in perspective, it’s thinner than an iPhone 4. It also weighs 1.33 pounds, about 15% less than the original. In addition, the iPad 2 will ship in either black or white bezel designs – which is more than we can say for the iPhone 4

The iPad 2 will also feature both front and rear-facing cameras, with the front camera having a VGA resolution, and the rear camera offering 720p video recording. Of course, the front-facing camera will take full advantage of FaceTime, so you can video conference between iPads, iPhones and Macs. Also included is a portable version of Photo Booth, complete with all the silly, unnecessary effects from the desktop version.

Under the hood, the new iPad 2 gets a serious hardware boost, jumping to a new dual-core A5 CPU,which runs at up to twice the speed of the original A4 CPU, and offers up to nine-fold graphical speed improvements. All these improvements should speed up what is already a pretty fast device in the first-gen version. Amazingly, with those improvements, battery life is expected to be the same as the current iPad. It’s not clear if RAM has been increased from 256MB though. Video resolution has not changed, with the same LED backlit 1024×768 IPS 9.7-inch display just like the original.

Another hardware improvement is the HDMI video out capability, which will require a $39 adapter that plugs into the 30-pin dock port, providing simultaneous USB and HDMI connectivity so you can charge up while watching video on the big screen. This output will work with all apps, supports screen rotation, and resolution up to 1080p. The iPad 2 will ship with iOS 4.3, which features speed-ups in Safari, iTunes home sharing, tweaks to AirPlay, and – thank god – the ability to decide if your iPad switch is for rotation lock or muting the device.

Apple also revealed a new cover for the iPad called the Smart Cover. Instead of being a full case that obscures the beautiful design of the device, the Smart Cover attaches magnetically to the front of the iPad 2, and the iPad 2 automagically turns on when you open it and goes to sleep when you close it. Plus, it’s got a microfiber lining to keep your screen less fingerprinty.

The Smart Cover has an ingenious folded design that lets you turn it into a stand for your iPad 2 as well. My only concern is using something with magnets means you need to keep it away from other devices in your backpack with hard drives, or credit cards unless you want to erase them. The Smart Cover will ship in a wide variety of colors and in both polyurethane and leather construction. Smart Cover prices range from $39 to $69.

The iPad 2 will ship in six configurations: WiFi Only 16GB ($499 USD), 32GB ($599), 64GB ($699), and WiFi+ 3G 16GB ($629), 32GB ($729), 64GB ($829). It looks like the Verizon and AT&T 3G versions do not share the same hardware at this point, so be sure to buy the correct one if you want one. If you like what you see, you won’t have to wait long to get one. The iPad 2 go on sale in the U.S. on March 11th, and to much of the rest of world on March 25th. You can pre-order over at the Apple Store starting on March 11th. Full specs can be found here.

While I’m not yet convinced that the improvements will be enough to make me upgrade from my current iPad, buyers who were on the fence about buying one will definitely find more to love about an already great device in the iPad 2.

Any Apple fanboy/fangirl would relish having The Jobs on his/her Christmas tree. That, or you can make it and place it on your desk. I like how large his head is. That seems pretty appropriate.

You can find a guide in German here at Benm.at and here’s a link to the PDF.

[via 9 to 5 Mac]

Designed by Dutch artist Metin Seven (who also created the awesome Technabob voxel mascot), this Steve Jobs bust not only looks cool, it’s made with a high-tech 3D printing process, thus completing the circle of geek life. The only thing better would be if you could dock your iPhone or iPod Touch on it. You hear us, Metin?

You can get your hands on Steve Jobs’ head over at shapeways for about $117 (USD).

[Thanks for the tip, Metin!]

I know what you’re thinking, Shane – if this keeps up I’m going to… email Steve Jobs! I suggest that you write a draft using The Joy of Tech’s Steve Jobs Email Generator. I’ve taken the liberty of writing your first draft:

I’ve also written El Jobso’s most likely reply to your email:

Have something to say to Steve? Check out the email generator at The Joy of Tech. But don’t blame me if the cops come crashing through your door after you try it.

[via TUAW]

Even though the 3GS looks virtually the same as the iPhone 3G, the 3GS ups the ante on the prior generation by increasing application speed, battery life, camera resolution, memory and more. According to Apple’s WWDC keynote announcement today, the faster processor in the 3GS increases launch times of popular apps from 2.1x (launching messaging), to 3.6x (opening an Excel spreadsheet). Of course, performance improvements will vary from application to application.

There’s also support for OpenGL|ES, which should improve graphical performance. And processing speed isn’t the only boost – the iPhone 3GS also supports 7.2Mbps HSDPA wireless connections. In addition to the speed hikes, the 3GS adds several new features not supported on the 3G. Battery life is also improved. Here’s a handy battery comparison chart from the guys over at Gizmodo:

There’s a brand new 3-megapixel camera, complete with auto-focus, auto-exposure, auto-white balance, low light and an auto-macro mode that can capture still images as close as 10cm away.

The camera can also capture video at VGA resolution (yawn) at up to 30fps. There was no mention of digital image stabilization, but the video does take advantage of all the auto adjustment modes that the still camera supports. You can even trim your video shots using a slick on-screen timeline interface.

There’s also a new voice control mode, which lets you not only voice-dial, but select tracks to play in iTunes, open web pages, and control other applications. Hopefully, they’ll open this up to app developers to leverage in their own applications. Also along for the ride is a digital compass, which at first doesn’t sound very exciting, but the addition of a magnetometer to the hardware will enable much greater accuracy in terms of understanding your bearing when in GPS mode – especially on foot.

Of course, the iPhone 3GS takes advantage of all of the features of the iPhone 3.0 OS, including cut-copy-paste, landscape keyboard, app store microtransactions, MMS messaging, stereo Bluetooth and much more.

The iPhone 3GS will be available June 19th in North America and Europe. The 16GB version retails for $199, and the 32GB version is $299, both with a new AT&T 2-year agreement. And if you’re looking for a cheap phone, you can now buy last years iPhone 3G for just $99 bucks. All models are available for pre-order now over on the Apple Store.

I was cruising around checking out the finalists for the Washington Post’s annual Easter Peeps Diorama competition this morning, and came across this bit of Apple/Peeps humor by Sarah Kohari and Erin Mastrangelo – it’s Peep Chromatic. Be sure to check all forty finalists over at Peeps Show III and let us know your favorites.

While it’s not the new iPhone 2 that everyone’s clamoring for, the tiny papercraft Steve Jobs sure looks cute hanging onto his flattened 2D iPhone Mini and iPod Pico.

The pulpy little version of Jobs was created by Joe Chiang as part of his wonderful papercraft Toy-a-Day series, which promises a whimsical new paper cut-out figure every day for a full year.

The collection already already includes great boxy versions of Mario, Cat in the Hat, Spiderman, R2-D2 and Optimus Prime among others.

While you can grab PDFs of Joe’s creations on the Toy-a-Day site, be sure to head over to the Papertoys Etsy shop to show you care.

Oh, and one more thing… it really is true what they say – paper dolls and people, they’re a similar shape.

Straight from the horse’s mouth: “We want native third party applications on the iPhone, and we plan to have an SDK in developers’ hands in February. We are excited about creating a vibrant third party developer community around the iPhone and enabling hundreds of new applications for our users.”

The reason for the delay: “It will take until February to release an SDK because we’re trying to do two diametrically opposed things at once—provide an advanced and open platform to developers while at the same time protect iPhone users from viruses, malware, privacy attacks, etc. This is no easy task,” Jobs continues, “We think a few months of patience now will be rewarded by many years of great third party applications running on safe and reliable iPhones.”

I can’t tell you how excited I am that Apple has made this official. The iPhone is such a powerful device, and the fact that it’s been a closed platform up until now has really limited its potential.

Read the full announcement here.

Well it’s not like getting $200 back in your pocket, but Apple has announced that they will provide a $100 credit to spend at the Apple Store if you purchased your iPhone prior to the price drop. This assumes you didn’t already manage to eke some sort of deal out of Apple or AT&T already.

Details are still being worked out, but this small gesture should help calm at least some of the ruffled feathers of Apple’s loyal early adopter crowd. (Myself included.)

[Read Steve Jobs' Open Letter to iPhone Customers]

• Downloadable ringtones for iPhone from iTunes:
  • Choose from about 500,000 tracks
  • Ringtones just 99 cents each
  • Any segment up to 30 seconds can made into a ringtone
  • Can’t convert full songs purchased into ringtones

Entire iPod line getting “refreshed” for 2007 holiday season…

• iPod Shuffle
  • New colors: Purple, Silver, Cyan, Green and Red (benefits RED)
  • Ships: Today (9/5/2007)
  • Prices: $79 for 1GB

• iPod Nano
  • Even tinier than before (measures 2.75″ x 2.06″ x 0.26″)
  • Short, squat design with large screen and tiny scroll wheel
  • Brighter display than 2G Nano
  • Plays games and videos
  • QVGA (320×240) resolution on 2-inch screen (wow!)
  • New user interface:
    • High res album artwork
    • Cover flow view of albums
  • Includes three free games (Vortex, iQuiz and Klondike)
  • Anodized aluminum case
  • Colors: Black, Silver, Cyan, Green and Red (benefits RED)
  • Battery life: 24 hours for audio /5 hours for video
  • Ships: Today (9/5/2007)
  • Prices: $199 for 8GB / $149 for 4GB

• iPod Classic (replaces 5.5G iPod)
  • Two models: 80GB and 160GB (huge!)
  • Hard drive based
  • 160GB model can hold a whopping 40,000 tunes
  • Thinner than the previous (5.5G) iPods
    (80GB is .41″ thick / 160GB is .53″ thick)
  • Includes three free games (Vortex, iQuiz and Klondike)
  • Anodized aluminum case
  • Colors: Black, White
  • Battery life: 40 hours for audio / 7 hours for video
  • Prices: $249 for 80GB / $349 for 160GB
  • Ships: This Week (9/5/2007)

• iPod Touch
  • Literally an iPhone without the phone
  • Exactly same multi-touch screen interface as iPhone
  • Includes calendar, clock, contacts, just no phone
  • Looks like no Google Maps either
  • Still includes Wi-fi, Safari and YouTube too
  • Unlike iPhone, no speakers or microphone
  • Battery life: 22 hours for audio / 5 hours for video
  • Prices: $299 for 8GB / $399 for 16GB
  • Ships: Late September (9/28/2007)
  • Available worldwide, unlike iPhone

• and one more thing… the iTunes Wi-Fi Store
  • Purchase and download tracks directly to iPod Touch
    (and iPhone after a software update due later this month)
  • Ability to search the entire store from the iPod via Wi-Fi
    (EDGE support not revealed at this point)
  • Song previews available before purchase
  • Can reverse-sync purchases into iTunes
  • Just as fast as the desktop version thanks to Wi-Fi
  • Available in all 22 countries where there’s iTunes
  • Starbucks partnership to allow instant purchase of tracks you hear (or any of the last 10 tracks played) when you’re grabbing your coffee (yawn)

• and one more, one more thing… iPhone Price Cut
  • 8GB model cut to $399 from $599
  • 4GB model : Discontinued
    (although if you can find one quick, they’re supposedly just $299!)
  • Since there will be a 16GB iPod Touch, I’d lay odds on a 16GB iPhone by the end of the year for $499

All in all, I’m excited about the new iPod Nanos and the iPod Touch, as they have been designed around new hardware. The Shuffle is just getting color changes and the Classic, just a bit more storage and battery life. All the iPods with screens are also getting a spanking new interface, which is cool too. The iPod Touch and iPhone price cut are sure to anger those of us who just spent $600 on the iPhone. I suppose that’s the price you pay for being an early adopter.

I couldn’t care less about the ringtones and Starbucks announcements, but I’m sure some of you will at least enjoy the designer ringtones. Corporate types always get jazzed about business deals between big brand names, but I’m not convinced that there will be armies of minions lined up with their iPods downloading tunes while ordering up their double-tall-extra-hot-no-foam-half-caf-lattes. At least you won’t have to pay for Wi-fi access while downloading tracks in store.

The iTunes wireless store has been anticipated for a long time, and I’m glad that Apple finally bit the bullet and will be offering this useful feature.

[some images via Engadget]

Well after you clear away all the bragging about selling over 2 billion songs and 1.3 million movies on iTunes, and how the Zune only captured a 2% market share in November, here’s what really has been revealed today:

• New iTunes Movie Download Partner: Paramount Studios, should take iTunes to over 250 movies available for download

• Apple TV (formerly “iTV”)
• Design looks the same as original announcement
• USB 2.0, Ethernet, WiFi (802.11 b, g & n) Connectivity
• HDMI, component, RCA and optical outputs
• 40GB hard drive
• 720p widescreen high definition video (surprise!)
• Stream audio, video, photos from up to 5 computers
• Can automatically sync content in the background and store to hard drive for immediate playback
• Ships February 2007
• Price: $299

• iPhone, a gorgeous, unified device, featuring:
• Widescreen iPod
• Mobile phone (GSM, EDGE, Quad-Band)
• Internet communicator (seamlessly switches between EDGE and WiFi)
• WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity
• Easy to use touchscreen interface
• No stylus required, use your fingers!
• Multi-finger, gesture-based controls (truly amazing)
• On screen keyboard for chat, e-mail, dialing
• Runs OS X with desktop-class applications!
• Syncs using iTunes, including contacts, calendars, notes, e-mail accounts, web bookmarks, etc..
• Full-fledged Safari web browser, no crappy WAP browsing

• E-mail: any POP or IMAP account, rich HTML messages
• Free BlackBerry-esque “push IMAP” e-mail from Yahoo!
• 3.5-inch 160 pixel per inch (320 x 480) high resolution color display
• 2 Megapixel digital camera
• Only one button on the whole device
• Motion sensor and accelerometer automatically detect when you switch from portrait to landscape modes
• Music automatically fades out when a phone call comes in
• 4 GB or 8 GB flash memory
• Dimensions: A svelte 4.5″ x 2.4″ x 0.46″ (not much bigger than a 5G iPod)
• Battery Life: 5 hour talk/video/browsing, 16 hours music playback
• EXCLUSIVE service partner: Cingular
• Ships June 2007
• Price: $499 (4 GB), $599 (8 GB)
• 2-Year Cingular Contract Required

Now that’s some news! The iPhone sure packs a wallop, but it’s a bit expensive, considering the 2 year Cingular contract commitment. That said, it is really an entire Mac packed into a portable device, so you have to give ‘em some slack on pricing. Would I like more memory for my tunes and video? Sure. But overall, it’s a pretty impressive little piece of innovation.

Check back often to see if the Apple Store has been updated to showcase today’s latest wares.

Stay tuned for more details as they become available.

It’s likely that the store will primarily feature movies only from Disney (including Walt Disney Pictures, Miramax, Pixar and Touchstone,) with some question about what studios will come on board in future. Rumors are that films will be priced from $9.99 to $14.99, competitive with DVD pricing.

Apple is also expected to announce today a series of new iPod models, including a large widescreen model designed for movie playback.

Today’s event, titled “Showtime,” is expected to be Apple’s rollout event for their latest consumer entertainment strategies, including online movie downloads, new media players and possibly greater integration with television sets for playback.

Stay tuned for more updates later today.

9:50am (Pacific): The Apple Store is temporarily down for maintenance, so clearly something new will be released today…

10:03am: Steve Jobs has taken the stage.

10:05am: 50% of new Mac purchasers are new Mac adopters, and over 17 million visited Apple stores in last quarter. Shipped 1.33 million Macs this quarter. Over 3/4 of the shipped Macs were Intel-based.

10:10am: New PowerMac replacement the Mac Pro. These will contain Core 2 Duo “Woodcrest” processors. Each with 2 dual-core Xeon processors performing at up at up to 3GHz and 4MB L2 cache. Estimated to run 1.6 to 2.1x faster than a G5 quad machine. Real world increase should be around 2x faster than prior machines. Since the machines require less power, there is less cooling required, and more room for hard drives (up to 4 per box). These machines will feature the same case design as prior PowerMacs, but the interior is totally redesigned. Drives will “snap” into place, room for larger double width graphics cards. 4 PCI Express slots and up to 2TB of storage.

10:15am: $2499 Price for the Mac Pro with:

• Two 2.66GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon “Woodcrest” processors
• 4MB shared L2 cache per processor
• 1.33GHz dual independent frontside buses
• 1GB memory (667MHz DDR2 fully-buffered DIMM ECC)
• NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT graphics with 256MB memory
• 250GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s 7200-rpm hard drive
• 16x double-layer SuperDrive (DVD+R DL/DVD
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