We all know Ashton Kutcher will soon be playing Steve Jobs, but did you know the enigmatic Apple co-founder also has a rare acting cameo to his name? Thanks to a long-lost in-house short film called “1944,” the truth can finally be revealed as Jobs portrays his own version of President Roosevelt during World War II. This and a whole lot more make up the news for this hump day on Wednesday, May 2, 2012!
The Verge reported on Tuesday night that Target stores may soon be phasing out Amazon Kindle-branded products this spring. Turns out the rumor was true, and Target has issued a statement confirming the change. “Target continually evaluates its product assortment to deliver the best quality and prices for our guests,” the statement reads. “Target is phasing out Kindles and Amazon- and Kindle-branded products in the spring of 2012. We will continue to offer our guests a full assortment of ereaders and supporting accessories including the Nook.” Many took the news to mean that Target would be more focused on Apple’s iPad, but wording from the company’s statement appears to show more interest in Barnes & Noble’s e-reader platform, which will certainly help boost its market share in the near future, we’d guess.
Developers continue to roll out Retina Display-ready updates for the new iPad, with the latest being Parallels Mobile, the iOS companion app to the company’s popular virtualization software that allows running Windows 7, Linux and even the Windows 8 Consumer Preview on your Mac. Parallels Mobile is now fully compatible with iOS 5 and optimized for the new iPad, while also connecting to your Mac easier than ever before. The $19.99 app is still being offered at the special introductory price of only $4.99 from the App Store, so if you’ve been on the fence about buying, you might want to hurry.
Apparently feeling left out of the recent infusion of cloud apps, Amazon today introduced its own Amazon Cloud Drive Desktop app for Mac and Windows. The free app requires Mac OS X 10.6 or higher and allows quick access to your cloud drive, including easy uploading of photos, documents, videos and other files via drag-and-drop. Files can also be added by Control-clicking files or folder from the Finder (note you’ll have to restart your computer or relaunch the Finder for this option to appear). Amazon’s Cloud Drive app isn’t quite as integrated as Dropbox or its score of competitors, since no icon appears on your hard drive -- just a little fluffy cloud in your menu bar where files can be dragged. It’s a shame Amazon didn’t get this out before now -- we have a free 20GB storage bump from last year which expires in July, so no sense filling up our cloud now when it’s going to drop back to the standard 5GB then.
Network World has a rare treat for Steve Jobs fans today, with a nearly nine-minute in-house video Apple made back in 1984. In the video entitled “1944,” Apple does a retro spin on its iconic “1984” commercial, set during World War II as Cupertino bravely fights its war against IBM. Rumored to have cost $50,000 at the time, the highlight of the video has to be Steve Jobs playing President Franklin Delano Roosevelt -- “right down to the cigarette holder” -- which was made to “fire up Apple’s international sales force at a 1984 meeting in Hawaii.” The video comes courtesy of former employee Craig Elliott, now CEO of cloud startup Pertino Networks (ironically, based a mere two blocks from Apple’s Cupertino headquarters), who worked at Apple from 1985 to 1996. Definitely a lost gem from a lost era, the website offers both the full video as well as a shorter piece with Jobs’ cameo role, for those of you in a big hurry.
With Adobe Creative Suite 6 not only announced but available for preorder, it was just a matter of time before that super-cool Photoshop CS6 beta sailed away into Adobe Labs heaven. As it turns out, that day is coming on Thursday, May 3, with Adobe announcing the final 24 hours to download the beta version before the real thing comes out. No word on when the beta actually stops working, but we’ll assume shortly after the official release. So when will that be? Adobe isn’t saying, but the CS6 software and new Creative Cloud is listed as shipping in “early May” and Adobe promised release within 30 days of the announcement on April 23. Given that the Photoshop CS6 beta is going bye-bye, we’d say next week looks quite promising, but don’t hold your disappointment against us should that prediction fail to pan out. In the meantime, head over to Adobe’s online store to preorder CS6 or Creative Cloud so you’ll be among the first to grab it.
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(Image courtesy of Network World)
