-What's happening?
Apple Byters, Brian Tong here to welcome to all the good and bad inside the world of Apple, plus we have a MacBook Air giveaway at the end of our show we're sticking around for.
Now, I'm a little beat up with all the iPhone 5 talk that's dipped in a heavy coating of rumor sauce and I know you are too, so let's make a promise.
If I say iPhone after this point in the next 2 minutes, Jim the cameraman
will disciple me.
Okay?
Alright, deal.
Now on to the show with new toys in a new report from Apple insider that claims Apple is preparing a refresh of its MacBook Pro line for this year ahead of the holiday shopping season.
According to their sources, the late 2011 refresh will bring marginal speed bumps but no new design or major changes until it's next generation Core i series processors are expected to be ready in the second quarter of 2012.
That's over 6 months
away and the last update was at the end of February.
What's the chance I see this happening?
Very strong.
Now more product news.
The Big A is expected to start shipping a new version of the AirPort Express 802.11n base stations.
Resources have discontinued the current line and Amazon has a 2 to 5-week shipping date.
The hardware should remain relatively the same, but we're not sure if it get the same dramatically improved signal boost that the recently released AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule received.
And in news that it's about time according to
95 Mac, Apple and Sprint have completed work on a version of the iPad 2 that's compatible with their network.
There's no confirmation if it will be only 3G or compatible with their 4G network which seems a little like a reach.
The news comes after a Bloomberg report last week that said Spring will offer the Apple smartphone with the #4 in mid-October with an unlimited data plan as part of a deal to bring the Cinco on board in the future.
Sprint says they can handle the data burden, but let's get real, unlimited data is only going
to last so long.
-Hey, Brian, what's that you got in your pocket there?
-Oh, over here?
It's my iPhone 4. Dammit!
Alright, let's take a break guys.
If you're bored with the games you have, we'll show you the next wave of iOS games.
Banks of the hanky panky where the bullfrogs jump from bank to banky.
Hey, guys, welcome to Tap that App.
I'm Brian Tong and this is the show that we cover the hottest apps in the mobile space.
And you're probably bored with some of those same old iOS games because Angry Birds and Bejeweled gets played out.
But I'm brining you 3 new games that are 99 cents and a breath of fresh air to keep your thumbs cramping.
Now first up is Spy Mouse and guess what you are, a mouse that's a spy.
The goal is to collect the cheese wedges without being spotted by those nasty cats and then get out of the room.
Drop a path with your finger where you wanna go and see if you have what it takes to be the big cheese.
Get it?
Now you also face boss pedals and
mouse traps in this fun puzzle and timing game that's well worth its 99-cent price tag.
Now some games are just one hit wonders but the team from Halfbrick that brought us Fruit Ninja has done it again with Jetpack Joyride.
touch the screen to fly up and down and collect as many coins as you can while avoiding zappers, pick up enhancements in the game and survive as long as you can.
Then use the coins you collect to purchase jetpacks, vehicle upgrades and more.
And if you suck at the game, just purchase coins directly in the app with your own money.
But right now, this is my new
favorite game hands down.
And finally, let's get a game for the grownups, 2 words: Zombie Gunship.
You'll hunt zombies from the sky by protecting a bunker and civilians and shooting the zombies with an infrared military-style display from a gunship.
See, I'm supposed to kill all those zombies, the shadow-looking guys and I don't know if I can do it.
Hold me.
You also earn coins to purchase weapon upgrades or special extras like a bomb drop, but this is another badass 99-cent app.
So out with the old and in with this new wave of games
that work on your iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch.
Now if you guys have any other apps you'd like us to show off, send them to Tap That App at CNET.com.
I'm Brian Tong, thanks for watching.
I will see you guys next time.
Come on, come on.
Down by the banks of the hanky panky-- Seriously, Jetpack Joyride is so fun.
You can like go up and down and then you ride this like crazy dragon thing and-- I'm gonna get back to the show.
Now the Tokyo game show just finished up in Tokyo and Nintendo released some updates of their underperforming 3DS.
Also, Sony titled
their launch of their PS Vita to Japan in December.
But one piece of news that caught my attention, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata confirmed the Japanese news organizations that they will not develop iOS games and said this is absolutely not under consideration, which is smart.
You know, turned your back on an install base of over 200 million iOS devices and let's see the competing hardware you have.
Yikes!
An add-on analog stick attachment.
That's the definition of fugly and that's a bad apple Nintendo.
You think offering some of your classics on iOS would be smart and it's about time you guys wake up.
Alright, to the quick fights.
We talked about Parallels a couple of weeks back and now it's VMware Fusion 4's turn.
The virtualization product is available for the promo price of $49.99.
Better graphics and performance and Lion compatibility are part of the 90 new features.
Also joining Apple's stance on the dwindling significance of Flash.
The developer preview of Windows 8 from Microsoft includes its Metro UI for tablet and touch products.
Microsoft announced
that the Metro version of its web browser will not support plug-ins and will be a full HTML5 experience, which means not Flash and another take to Adobe's special parts.
And if you're a Mac Skype user who fell left out and couldn't communicate with the Facebook chat users, the latest Skype 5.4 Beta is now compatible with your Facebook friends because who doesn't want their mom to be able to videochat them at any time.
Alright, we keep working for you, the Apple Byters and we have a killer giveaway from our friends at Spec.
You all
know I have a special relationship with my MacBook Air and nothing says I love you like protection.
So we're giving out 8 MacBook Air see-through cases that are compatible with the 11-inch and 13-inch models.
There's 4 of them for each size in different pretty colors.
All you have to do is e-mail us with the different food that the Iron Chef MacBook Air sliced up at the end of last week's show.
Alright, that's gonna do it for this week.
Send us your e-mails to the Apple Byte at CNET.com.
I really do answer some of your questions.
Thanks for watching and we'll see you guys net week
for another bite of the apple.
