Micro-projectors coming to the iPhone?

Image by Victor Svensson via Flickr

According to DigiTimes, Foxlink in Taiwan is developing micro-projectors in partnership with a handset maker, apparently in Europe. Speculation is that Apple, along with Samsung and Nokia, is planning to release an Phone with a built-in micro-projector. DigiTimes quotes sources within the Taiwan business sector and feels that Foxlinks links with Nokia and Apple support the veracity of the reports.

Certainly, if Apple were to go down this route then it could only strengthen its brand as one that is trong on innovation and leading from the front. There is a definite trend to smaller projectors and talk of micro-projectors ha been around for quite a while with various prototypes demonstrated. Wheter  Whether Apple will introduce a new iPhone so soon after the recent launch of the iPhone 3GS is, I think, unlikely. I would expect them to release a new model about this time next year at the earliest, partly because they would want the technology to be robust and a viable one. Apple doesn’t do gimmicks.

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GeekAtPlay Studio – excellent 3d graphics site for hexagon, Daz3D Studio and Photoshop!

GeekAtPlay Studio is an excellent site for anyone interested in 3d graphics. The staff are very industry experienced artists and very talented. They are:

Vladimir Chopine
Partner Geekatplay Studio

Founder and Creative Director, Vladimir develops the ideas and artwork, does the research, and coordinates the efforts at Geekatplay.

Trained in film production and computer sciences, if you don’t find him in front of a computer, you may find him in front of the stove, a movie screen, or playing around with his kids.

Jason Buchanan
Partner Geekatplay Studio

At GeekAtPlay, Jason wears many hats, including Illustrator, Graphic Designer, Web Developer and handling business relations.

When he’s not working at GeekAtPlay, Jason enjoys Painting, Illustration, dabbling in Martial Arts and spending time with his wife, Amy, and their four children.

Ami Chopine
Writer and Editor

Ami is a professional writer whose mad desire for correct English landed her a job editing and narrating at Geekatplay.

A published author and graduate of Orson Scott Card’s Literary Bootcamp, she loves writing speculative fiction, reading, and triathlon training. She is better at growing human beings than plants.

Amy Buchanan
Recording Artist

Trained as classical musician and vocal artist, Amy spends most of her working hours glued to a microphone.

When she’s not recording for GeekAtPlay, Amy spends her time working on her debut record, finding the patience to put up with her husband, Jason, and enjoying her children.

Jared Buchanan
Director of 3D Content / Master Rigger

Having won many awards early on in his career, Jared comes to GeekAtPlay from Daz 3D and brings expertise in 3D modeling, rigging and Poser development.

When Jared’s not busy dispensing 3D knowledge, you’ll likely find him tricking out his latest car project or coming up with material for his next comedy routine at the water cooler.im Harris, M.S.
Learning Development Director

Jim’s love for learning and his passion for assuring others “get it”, landed him at the Geek At Play Studio. Learning Projects(training & tutorials) and Corporate University Development improve with his influence.

An innovative educator and certified teacher, Jim applies what he knows about learning in home renovations, personal study, gardening, cycling, and backpacking. When not in a learning mode, he is getting schooled by his grandkids.

Gary Miller
Instructor

Gary Miller has been involved in computer graphics since 2001 when he first bought a copy of Bryce 5. From there his interests have grown to include Photoshop, Vue, Hexagon, Poser, Cinema 4d, BodyPaint 3d and others. After retiring in 2001 he taught himself modeling, texturing, composition, lighting and other areas all with the generous help of others who have created tutorials and other resources and shared them on the internet.

Gary and his wife Catherine are very happily married and live in So. California with their two children, Nicholas and Grace as well as a petting zoo worth of animals. Gary lends his time and skills as well as his wife’s patience, to give back to 3d Hexagon, community.

The site has excellent tutorials that are easy to follow and cover various levels of experience in Hexagon, Vue, Daz3D, Poser, Photoshop and Cinema 4D. You can watch the tutorials individually or download them at a reasonable cost in ‘Mega Packs’ (around $25 each). Included in each ‘Mega Pack’ are not only tutorials, but resources incudign materials, models, textures and nodes (in the Vue packs). They also have some free downloads.

Check out their site at http://www.geekatplay.com/

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Steve Jobs has returned to Apple HQ in Cupertino, California!

Image via CrunchBase

Acccording to CNBC’s Silicon Valley correspondent Jim Goldman, employees at Apple reported that CEO Steve Jobs returned to work at Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California on Monday. This comes on the same day Jobs was quoted in an Apple press release announcing that the iPhone 3GS sold over 1 million units during its first weekend.

Jobs has been on medical leave from Apple since January and was originally slated to return by the end of June to the company he co-founded in 1977. However, it was recently reported that Jobs had a liver transplant in Tennessee just two months ago.

It’s unclear whether Jobs’ reported appearance today was a single event, the beginning of a part-time return, or his official return to duty.

Goldman wrote, “Officials at Apple have yet to respond to multiple phone calls and emails seeking guidance about Jobs and his whereabouts, but employees are doing what Apple PR isn’t, and that’s confirming that he’s here at work… The news is solid. Jobs is back in the house, at least for today.”

This is great news for Apple as a company, not just in terms of its business status but no doubt for team morale. Hopefully he isn’t back too early in view of his recent surgery and that he takes it easy.

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iPhone 3G S activation woes

It seem that Apple is a ‘victim’ of its own success, with reports of some early adopters having the frustrating experience of waiting up to 48 hours for their new iPhone 3G S to be activated after purchase.

Of course, the real ‘victim’ in this situation is the end-user who has placed their faith in Apple by purchasing their product. Whether the fault here lies with Apple of the networks is unclear. Also, its unclear how much the UK is effected or if its just in the States with AT & T being at fault.

Wall Street Journal reporting Steve Jobs is recovering from Liver transplant

Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, has we all know, been on sick leave in January. we knew too that he was suffering from a form pf pancreatic cancer. It now looks like it had spread to his liver and as a result he has needed a liver transplant. If so, it must have been a hard time for him and his family.

In any event, he is scheduled to return to work this month. Some have been speculating that he will return bearing gifts, e.g. the so-called Apple Media Pad. If so, that is a bonus. Personally, I will be pleased see him fit and well and over the worst. Whether you like him or hate him, he is still a human being and I wish him well and a full recovery.

Gutenprint and Gimp-Print for Mac OS X now vailable

The Gutenprint project is pleased to announce Gutenprint 5.2.4-rc1, a release candidate from the stable branch of Gutenprint 5.2. This release offers several bug fixes from earlier Gutenprint 5.2 releases.

The release is an important one for users of Epson printers in particular, especially the following printers:
EPSON Artisan 700

• EPSON Artisan 800
• EPSON BX300F
• EPSON EP-801A
• EPSON EP-901A
• EPSON EP-901F
• EPSON ME 300
• EPSON ME Office 360
• EPSON PX-401A
• EPSON Stylus NX100
• EPSON Stylus NX105
• EPSON Stylus Photo PX700FW
• EPSON Stylus Photo PX800FW
• EPSON Stylus Photo TX700W
• EPSON Stylus Photo TX800W
• EPSON Stylus S20
• EPSON Stylus SX100
• EPSON Stylus SX105
• EPSON Stylus T20
• EPSON Stylus TX100
• EPSON Stylus TX101
• EPSON Stylus TX102
• EPSON Stylus TX103
• EPSON Stylus TX105
• EPSON Stylus TX106
• EPSON Stylus TX109
• EPSON TX300F

The latest release no longer supports OS X 10.2 however, so if you haven’t upgraded for a while perhaps now is the time to consider doing so.

Full details are listed in the release notes.

Java vulnerability in Mac OS X finally patched

It was a long time coming but we finally have a patch for the Java vulnerability in OS X. Apple has made the ptch available vi Software Update. Java for Mac OS X 10.4, Release 9 delivers improved reliability, security and compatibility for J2SE 5.0 and J2SE 1.4.2 on Mac OS X 10.4.11 and later. This release updates J2SE 5.0 to version 1.5.0_19 and J2SE 1.4.2 to version 1.4.2_21.

For more details on this update, please visit this website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3593

For information on the security content of this update, please visit this website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222

Snow Leopard Up-to-Date program announced by Apple

Apple has announced that customers who purchased a qualifying system or Xserve on or after 8th June that does not come with now Leopard can upgrade to the latest version of OS X just the shipping costs ($9.55/£7.95).

Mac OS X Snow Leopard refines the elegant Mac OS X user experience with lots of little touches and performance improvements that will make using your Mac even more enjoyable. It also includes a few big foundation technologies designed to tap the power of today’s computer hardware and provide a strong base for innovation.

Snow Leopard is the much-awaited (or much-hyped… depending on your perspective) update to OS X and will include several significant updates and features. These include:

• A new Finder – re-written to take advantage of 64-bit support and Grand Central Dispatch, Apple’s technology for optimising performance for multi-cores
• Exposé and Stacks – Exposé is now integrated into the Dock and Stacks are scrollable
• Quicker Time Machine Backup – reduces the time backups take by 50%
• Faster wake up and hit down – wake up happens in half the time and shut down in around  quarter. Joining wireless networks is also meant to be 55% quicker
• Updating quicker and more reliable – the entire process has been simplified, streamlined and is up to 45 percent faster, yet more comprehensive and reliable
• Reduced footprint – Snow Leopard requires less than half the disk space than Leopard, freeing up about 6GB of precious space
• Quicktime X – the next-generation media technology that powers the audio and video experience, with built-in uploads to YouTube and MobileMe, as well as HTTP-bed live streaming and improved colour accuracy

All in all, if you haven’t already made a purchase, now would be a good time to go ahead rahter than delay just to wait for now Leopard. Now there is no reason to wait… unless you are still hoping for the Apple Media Pad!