The only Apple news worth reading…

Apple has applied for a patent relating to an iMac with a touch interface and flex base.

From Patently Apple:

While most of us were getting ready for the iPad’s arrival in January and Patently Apple hard at work preparing our major series called the Tablet Prophecies, a major iMac Touch patent was being quietly published in Europe. And while some of the graphic figures of today’s patent did slip out in Europe, we were never able to verify whether they were legitimate or not. Well, today we finally get to post the Mother Lode of all information concerning the iMac Touch and it’s absolutely brilliant! Ironically we had just posted a report on Saturday titled “Apple Patents Point to Future MacBooks with IPS & Touch Displays” when we discovered the European Filing. The naysayers will have to eat crow on this one, because Apple’s method of transitioning from OS X to iOS is clearly outlined for both the iMac and MacBook – and it’s a grand slam home run. Imagine having an iMac on your desktop one minute and a gigantic iPad the next. Imagine playing iGames on this dream machine - Wow! Imagine reading a double-page book on this – Unbelievable! Apple takes the mystery out of how OS X could finally co-exist with iOS on a Mac and you’ve got to see this one to believe it.

AppleInsider is reporting that Apple has ceased production of its current iMacs in anticipation of a new model coming soon.  The new models are rumored to included a dual-core Core i5 model, as well as quad-core Core i5 and Core i7 configurations.

From AppleInsider:

A person familiar with the matter says the Mac maker is informing some of its distributors not to expect any further stock of the entry level 21.5-inch, 3.06GHz iMac, implying that production of that model has ceased.

Meanwhile, those with ties to the company’s stateside reseller channels are being advised to sell through their stock of all existing iMac models and to keep their inventories as lean as possible for the next few weeks.

From MacRumors:

A couple of discoveries have revealed early Mac support for the high end ATI and NVIDIA graphics cards, raising hopes that Apple will soon be updating their desktop computers. Both the Mac Pro and iMacs are overdue for product refreshes with no solid timeframe for either update.

The newly released Mac mini has revealed a new set of ATI drivers buried within its default Mac OS X installation. New Macs always have a slightly newer version of the system software installed that provides support for the new hardware. In this case, the software also revealed early support for the ATI Radeon 5 series. Some tinkerers have been able to use the software to drive an ATI Radeon 5870 on an actual Mac Pro. Meanwhile, a recent NVIDIA Driver release have shown references to NVIDIA GeForce GTX 400 series support.
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Lending support to a recent rumor about a touchscreen iMac, a new patent application from Apple revealed this week shows an all-in-one desktop with a touch-sensitive display.

From AppleInsider:

Entitled “Shape Detecting Input Device,” the invention, credited to Peter Kennedy, was a continuation of a 2004 application re-filed on Oct. 30, 2009. The application describes a variety of situations where a touchscreen would be preferable to a mouse and keyboard, including common uses seen today, such as ATM machines, point of sale machines in stores, airline ticket e-terminals, library terminals and more.

The application describes a system that would allow users to hold objects onto a touchscreen to enable access, such as for security purposes. By holding an object on the screen, such as a ring or a key, the system would allow users to access certain data within the system.

Such a method, the application states, could allow “improved techniques to allow different authorization levels” on computers, such as allowing a network administrator to make changes.

“This is particular advantageous in environments where the computer system is shared by multiple users, such as in education environments,” the application reads. “Each user could have their own personal signet. The user simply has to present his/her ring to the touch screen in order to place the computer system in his/her preferred configuration.”

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