Something of a mixed bag of news kicked off this second week in October on Monday, with rumors of a Mac mini refresh, news that Crazy Taxi will be driving onto iOS devices soon and hey, even a one-click Mac solution for hiding that annoying Newsstand icon -- assuming you never use it in the first place. Read on to find out about all of this and much more...
AppleInsider is reporting that a number of online resellers are showing constrained or sold out inventory of the Mac mini, suggesting that Apple could soon offer a refreshed model of the smallest Mac. The website specifically noted stock being non-existent for the 2.3GHz model at Amazon, MacConnection and J&R, while those retailers as well as MacMall show the 2.5GHz also unavailable. Depleted inventory levels usually points to a product refresh on the horizon, and it's a fair bet that such an update to the Mac mini would likely add Intel's latest Ivy Bridge processor to the $599 and up lineup, which hasn't been updated since July, 2011.
The SEGA Blog announced Monday that Crazy Taxi will be speeding its way onto iOS soon, complete with a teaser video. "You wanna get nuts? On the go? Let’s get nuts -- on the go!" the brief blog post reads. "The most madcap of cab games is coming to iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. When? Whenever the cab gets here -- which will be soon! Stay tuned for more!" TouchArcade is reporting that the title will hit iOS later this month, including the original soundtrack by The Offspring.
Are you a Mac developer finding it increasingly hard to get your app onto the Mac App Store in a timely manner because of long review times? According to MacRumors, you're not alone. A training firm called Shiny Development has actually started tracking review times for both iOS and Mac App Store submissions, and this crowdsourced data gathered from Twitter shows a disturbing trend in the length of time it takes new Mac apps to get approved for sale on Apple's virtual shelves. Back on April 1, it took only a few days to get a new app approved for sale, but over the summer the average wait time increased to a week and most recently, nearly a month spent in review. Wait times for iOS apps, on the other hand, average between three and 11 days by comparison.
Not everyone uses Apple's Newsstand to indulge in magazines on their iPhone, iPad or iPod touch, so it's kind of annoying that iOS doesn't allow you to remove it -- or at the very least, tuck it away inside a folder where you don't have to see it. Well, now the second option is available to iOS 6 users, and it won't even require a jailbreak. MacStories is reporting that a free Mac app called StifleStand now offers a one-click solution for hiding Newsstand inside a folder. There's one caveat, however: If you still want to use Newsstand from its new folder, be advised that it will crash when launched this way -- this tweak is only for those who do not use Newsstand and would rather just see it banished to some far-off place where you'll never have to see it again.
Waiting impatiently for one of those slick-looking Nokia Lumia 920 handsets? The Verge is reporting that AT&T will start accepting preorders on October 21 for the coveted smartphone -- as well as other new Windows Phone 8 devices from HTC, Samsung and Asus that will launch five days later. While sources close to AT&T and Microsoft appear to confirm the October 21 preorder date, you'll still have to wait for early November to actually get your hands on one. Sorry, folks...
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