Think of Mac

The iPhone can already be used to buy coffee; now it can sell it too. Square, a new venture from Twitter co-creator Jack Dorsey, lets retailers swipe credit cards using a tiny reader that plugs in to the audio jack on an iPhone.

Using an iPhone to collect money is nothing new, and apps like Credit Card Terminal and iSwipe Pro have been around for awhile. But Square marks the first time a card can be physically swiped — and, says a post in Wired’s Epicenter, that also means the ability to accept gift cards.  Read more... (189 words, estimated 45 secs reading time)

SEOUL, South Korea — South Koreans got their first taste of the iPhone on Saturday as the multifunctional communication and entertainment device made its long awaited debut in one of the world’s most technologically sophisticated societies.

Though already available in other Asian countries such as Japan – where it went on sale last year – the slim smartphone got a late start in South Korea amid regulatory hurdles and tough negotiations between manufacturer Apple Inc. and a local telecommunications company.

But the waiting finally came to an end for about 850 South Koreans who took possession of their coveted iPhones at a boisterous official launching event in Seoul characterized by blaring music and flashing lights.  Read more... (230 words, estimated 55 secs reading time)

There is some news about Apple’s case against Psystar. Now it appears that Psystar was planning on selling millions of Macintosh OSX clones through 2011.

According to Gregg Keizer on Computerworld, Psystar was found guilty of violating the DMCA act by copying and creating special versions of OSX that could be installed on non Apple PC hardware. However, both companies are still fighting it out in Federal court.  Read more... (135 words, estimated 32 secs reading time)

In less than two and a half years on the market, Apple’s iPhone has managed nearly a fifth of the total global smartphone market, thanks to nearly 50 percent year-over-year growth in sales in the third quarter of 2009.

New data released by research firm Gartner Thursday showed that the iPhone has taken a 17.1 percent share of the worldwide smartphone market in the three-month period ending in September. The report said Apple’s share is only expected to grow, with even stronger anticipated sales in the fourth quarter, thanks to expansion into China and the addition of new carriers in multiple countries.  Read more... (216 words, estimated 52 secs reading time)

When asked about Steve Jobs in a TV special that aired this week, Bill Gates said the Apple co-founder has shown “more inspiration” than any other leader in the tech industry.

The program “Warren Buffett and Bill Gates: Keeping America Great” aired Thursday night on CNBC. The “Town Hall Event” featured questions from the audience directed towards two of the world’s richest men.

One audience member asked Gates, to laughter from the audience, what his thoughts were on Jobs and the work he has done as CEO of Apple. The Microsoft founder had fond words for his rival.  Read more... (232 words, estimated 56 secs reading time)

BERLIN — Nokia, the world’s biggest cellphone maker, sued Apple on Thursday, claiming that Apple illegally used 10 of its patented technologies to make the iPhone, its innovative touch-screen smartphone.

Nokia said it had filed a patent infringement suit in United States District Court in Delaware. The complaint claims Apple, based in Cupertino, Calif., illegally used Nokia’s patents for wireless data, speech coding, security and encryption to make its iPhone work on GSM, UMTS and WiFi wireless networks.  Read more... (161 words, estimated 39 secs reading time)

Apple’s new Magic Mouse brings multitouch technologies first exposed on the iPhone and MacBook touchpad to the venerable mouse.

The new design presents a solid acrylic surface on a low-profile body, lacking any physical buttons or the scroll ball of Apple’s previous Mighty Mouse.

More significantly, it shifts the use of the mouse from sensing movement of the device itself over a surface, to one where the user’s fingers are sensed as they move across the surface of the device. The new mouse still uses laser optical tracking to find its relative coordinates, but the new multitouch surface turns it into a closer cousin of the trackpad.  Read more... (112 words, estimated 27 secs reading time)

Apple has upgraded its current line of Mac mini computers, plus added a server version. The base mini ($599) gets a slightly faster Core 2 Duo processor (2.26GHz versus 2GHz), double the previous memory (2GB, up from 1GB) and a beefier hard drive (160GB versus 120GB.)

The $799 version includes a 2.53GHz processor, 4GB of memory (versus 2GB previously) and a 320GB hard drive.

Full Story: Cult of Mac

It’s no secret that the iPod Touch is capable of more than Apple lets on – or rather, more than Apple will let the device do.

Last month a ‘teardown’ of the third-gen iPod Touch by iFixit revealed the presence of a Broadcom wireless chip which packs an FM receiver and FM transmitter (along with 5GHz 802.11n Wi-Fi). A refresh of the iPod Nano, released at the same time as the new Touch, added an FM radio along with support for ‘live pause’ and iTunes Tagging.  Read more... (133 words, estimated 32 secs reading time)

By now, you’ve seen the Windows 7 commercials and read the reviews. PCMag will have far more to say in the coming days and weeks about the quality and performance of Microsoft’s Windows 7 OS, as well as how it stacks up against its primary competition, Apple’s Snow Leopard. But have you ever wondered what it would be like if you could watch executives from both companies really have at it? Not with snarky commercials, but with an honest discussion of the technologies that drive these operating systems? It won’t happen, of course, but this is pretty close.  Read more... (251 words, estimated 1:00 mins reading time)