Amazon has quietly launched its Kindle Reader desktop application for Mac OS X, without so much as any advance notice or a press release. This follows last month’s launch of the reader application for RIM’s BlackBerry lineup.

The desktop Kindle Reader application allows users to purchase books from Amazon as well as easing sync between the application and the Kindle hardware and displays bookmarks/highlights from Kindle reading sessions, although without allowing for new highlight creation.

The download is free and is compatible with Leopard, but is not compatible with PowerPC-based hardware or Tiger.

Originally, Valve went all-in with a Mac port of the original Half-Life. However, shortly before its release, similar to their Dreamcast port, the game was cancelled with few reasons given. Gamers have been playing both generations of Half-Life on Mac via Boot Camp, Parallels, VMWare Fusion, and Wine products such as CrossOver.

Valve credits Apple with providing some assistance with the process, as well as encouraging them to bring Steam to Mac. This is a significant turnaround for Apple, as Valve has criticised the company in the past for not encouraging and fostering game development on the Mac platform. However, after the success of iPhone and iPod touch as gaming devices, Apple appears to be welcoming the industry once again.

It is not clear if Steam for Mac will be based on a porting solution, such as Cider. If it is, gamers may be in for a disappointment; hackers have already been cooking up Mac-compatible versions of Steam games using the process for years. Valve has confirmed that Steam account holders will get the Mac versions of existing titles for free, if they own a PC counterpart that has been ported and sold by Valve directly. That includes Half-Life, Counter-Strike, Team Fortress 2, Portal and the upcoming release of Portal 2, which Valve says will be available simultaneously for Mac and Windows.

“Will the Wi-Fi-only iPad allow for tethering with the iPhone and/or vice versa?” The exchange follows below:

I’m Jezper from Sweden, a long time Apple fan, currently about to replace the very last computer at home with a brand spanking new iMac i7. I’m also awaiting the release of the iPad. However, I have one question:

Will the wifi-only version somehow support tethering thru my iPhone?

Two devices, based on the same OS, with already built-in technology to share one data plan suggests a secondary contract could possibly be redundant.

From the look of your keynote, where the iPad sits well between my MacBook Pro and my iPhone, I was hoping the three of them could interact as seamless as possible.

All the best,
Jezper Söderlund

Jobs, in his trademark style fired up his iPhone and sent out his response:

Ämne: Re: Dear mr. Jobs
Från: Steve Jobs <sjobs@apple.com>
Datum: 5 mars 2010 17.01.29 CET
Till: Jezper Söderlund <>
Return-Path: <sjobs@apple.com>

No.

Sent from my iPhone.

While the Wi-Fi only iPad could access the internet from any Wi-Fi capable smartphone with the proper software/settings, the combination of slinging 3G from an iPhone 3G/3GS via Wi-Fi seems like the most logical pairing, with the confirmation of no such functionality another in a string of artificial limitations placed by Apple.

Statement from Apple CEO Steve Jobs: “We’re excited for customers to get their hands on this magical and revolutionary product and connect with their apps and content in a more intimate, intuitive and fun way than ever before.”

US pricing is as follows:
16GB WiFi only — $499
32GB WiFi only — $599
64GB WiFi only — $699
16GB WiFi + 3G — $629
32GB WiFi + 3G — $729
64GB WiFi + 3G — $829

Now, the company has decided to adopt its iPhone developer model for Mac OS X and is now offering access to is OS X developer program for $99 a year, substantially easing the barrier to entry on the platform and increasing opportunities for enthusiast and hobbyist developers to create new software.

The lawsuit was jointly filed with the International Trade Commission in Delaware district court. Apple didn’t specify damages or injunctions it wanted levied against HTC. Apple CEO Steve Jobs stated the following in a prepared statement this morning:

“We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We’ve decided to do something about it, We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.”

Here’s what’s going on: Your shiny new MacBook relies heavily on NVIDIA’s MCP79 chipset. And, Windows doesn’t have USB drivers by default for it. The Boot Camp firmware mimics a USB drive while the Windows installer is running, but that emulation isn’t there after Windows is finished installing. So, Windows can’t see the DVD drive to install Boot Camp.

Worse, Apple doesn’t provide a downloadable full driver set for Boot Camp online, only updaters… but that’s a gripe for another day.

The solution: Follow these steps.

Basically, we need to get the BootCampInstaller.exe that is on your Mac OS X Install Disc, onto your hard drive. If you’re the rare soul that is running Windows XP with FAT32 formatting, this is actually easy. If not, and we’ll assume you don’t, follow all of the steps below.

0) Again, we’re assuming you already installed Windows. Go do that if you haven’t already.
1) Download the following things: Your latest Boot Camp Drivers folder from the Mac OS X Install Disc, and NTFS-3G. The easiest way to get the Boot Camp folder from your Mac OS X Install Disc, is to insert the disc into a Windows PC and copy it from there.
2) Install NTFS-3G. Reboot.
3) Copy the Boot Camp folder that you grabbed from your Mac OS X Install Disc, and drop it on the root level of your Windows install drive. This is possible because NTFS-3G makes it writable.
4) Go to apple.com/support/downloads and download the latest Boot Camp update. Copy it to the root level of your Windows drive.
5) Reboot into Windows. Run the Boot Camp installer (from your OS X Install Disc). Reboot when done.
6) Now run the Boot Camp Driver Update downloaded from apple.com. Reboot when done.
7) Congratulations. You now have the latest Boot Camp drivers, and you have access to your USB DVD drive from within Windows. You just saved yourself the three hours of taking apart your MacBook just to put the DVD drive back in for a driver install.

The app also allows access to the music library, internet radio, contacts, phone functions and map by Daimler, with points-of-interest data provided by Microsoft Bing. The Assist feature built-in to the app can also automatically mark parking locations when undocked and can provide GPS coordinates to the Smart hotline for roadside assistance if necessary.

Daimler is also working on a camera for the kit that can identify speed limit signs and then warns the driver if speeding in order to prevent potential danger. Pricing is set at €240 ($326) for the cradle, a one-time purchase of €9.99 ($14) for the app, with the optional annual €49.99 ($68) cost for on-board European and US maps plus live traffic data.

The kit will be released in the second quarter of the year.

• Canon PowerShot S90
• Canon sRAW
• Canon mRAW
• Leica D-LUX 4
• Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1
• Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH1
• Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3

The update is available from Apple Software Update.

On the other hand, it’s possible that the feature may not be destined for the iPhone itself, instead being integrated into a future version of the iPad, being that both devices utilize the same SDK for development.