Apple May Be Holding a Media Event On March 24

World of Apple and My Apple Guide have both heard from sources that Apple is planning to hold a special event on March 24 to release new desktop hardware.

Only My Apple Guide claims to have any specifics as to what Apple will announce, they are expecting a new Mac Mini, iMacs with Nvidia chipsets, Mac Pros, and a pleasant “surprise.” Neither one of these websites are known for leaking news but if it is true I would expect to see all of the above along with at least a mention of Snow Leopard (although the appearance of Mac Pros seems a little sketchy to me).

If I was to tell you what I want (not what I’m expecting) it would be a cheaper Mac Mini. When the Mac Mini was initially released it was priced at $499 and stayed at that price until the transition to Intel processors, I really hope Apple decides to move back to that price point.

SunCat Solar Recharging Batteries

SunCat Rechargeable Batteries

Designer Knut Karlsen has come up with the innovative idea of integrating flexible solar cells onto rechargeable batteries.

Karlsen’s current battery is just a prototype and isn’t exactly ideal the charging isn’t that efficient and the battery itself has to be smaller to fit all of the extra components but hopefully the design will get significantly better over time.

Prototype SunCat batteries enable solar charging | Crave – CNET.

DoubleTwist is Now Available

DoubleTwist

DoubleTwist is a universal media hub that is now available as a public beta for Mac OS X. DoubleTwist is like iTunes except it works with not just iPhones and iPods but also with other portable media players.

Not only will DoubleTwist transfer the media to your player for you but it is also capable of converting nearly any video format to the correct format for your device.

The only thing I would suggest to the developers of DoubleTwist is that I don’t want to have to drag and drop media to my device, I would rather set a list of parameters based on ratings, how recent it was last played, etc. and have DoubleTwist transfer it for me. Essentially I want a true iTunes alternative.

doubleTwist.

Snow Leopard Might Have Stacks Folders

Snow Leopard Stacks Folders

When Leopard was released one of the coolest features was Stacks. Stacks were basically just folders sitting in your Dock that when clicked on would fan out to display all of the contents of that folder. Stacks Folders however is a new feature for Snow Leopard that will allow you to navigate through your computers files system from within those stacks.

There is no indications as to whether or not this will be a final feature of Snow Leopard but if it is I’m sure it will end up much more polished than its current incarnation because honestly, it looks a little messy.

Click the link below for a video demonstration of Stacks Folders:

Stacks Folders

Apple Announces Safari 4 Public Beta

Apple has announced a public beta of Safari 4 for both Windows and Mac. Apple says there are 150 new features in the browser. I haven’t read through all of the features because that would take a lot of time and since browsers aren’t the most interesting of applications it would also be a little boring (but if you would like to they are all listed here).

Top Sites

The first feature you will probably see when you open up Safari is “Top Sites.” Top Sites is essentially a homepage showing you your 12 most visited web sites, which are automatically generated by Safari.

Safari 4 Tab Bar

Apple has also decided to go along with the trend of putting the tab bar above the address bar. I’m still unsure as to whether or not I prefer the tab bar above the address bar or not but I do understand that it saves room and the way Apple has done it does look incredibly slick.

Safari 4 Speed Test

Apple also claims that Safari 4 is faster then any other browser out there. I have heard from others though that Chrome might actually be faster in the real world but according to the tests Apple did, Safari 4 is faster.

Safari 4 Web Page ZoomSafari 4 now has the ability to not only increase the font size on a web page but also increase the size of the images on the page.

Safari 4 Smart Address FieldApple has added a “Smart Address Field” which offers suggestions for you from your browsing history and bookmarks.

Apple has done a very impressive job with Safari 4, they look like they are on the path of a slower release cycle but when they do release they push out a huge list of features making them one of (if not the) best browsers available.

But, I still won’t be making the switch from Safari, I do only have one reason I’m not switching. The reason I’m not switching is that Safari 4 doesn’t have an option to force links that would normally open in new windows, to open in new tabs. This is especially frustrating when I use Google Reader and try to use the “v” shortcut to open the currently highlighted item on its website, in Safari it opens a new window, in Firefox it opens a new tab and that is how it should be. Apple, please add this seemingly simple feature, it’s the only one keeping me from switching.

Apple – Safari – Introducing Safari 4 – See the web in a whole new way.

Metal Gear Solid Touch Trailer

The game is basically going to be another tap to shoot iPhone game but it will have some interesting pinch to zoom features which will (hopefully) make tap to shoot gameplay fun.

Konami has revealed that there will be two editions of the game, the special “advance release edition” will come first and you will be able to save your progress for the “final release” that will come out later. The final release will be a free update to the advance release owners. The advance release edition looks like it will only include the first half of the storyline but the teaser website doesn’t make that very clear. The game looks really good and hopefully the fact that it is a “tap to shoot” game won’t hurt them. tap to shoot isn’t exactly the most exciting game genre out there but hopefully Konami can do it right.

“METAL GEAR SOLID TOUCH” OFFICIAL SITE.

Stop the iPhone’s AutoCorrect Feature by Typing a “Z”

iPhone Z AutoCorrectA Lifehacker Australia reader found out that if you type a z into any area of the iPhone where auto-correct is used you can type immediately before the z and auto-correct won’t attempt to fix anything. This is especially useful for those you occasionally type in different languages.

Stop The iPhone’s AutoCorrect Feature Ruining Your SMS Messages – Lifehacker Australia.