The future of iOS is quietly shaping up behind the scenes at Apple, and we’ll probably get a good look at iOS 5 during WWDC 2011, but until then it’s mostly a guessing game. That is, until someone digs up some patents that show potential features in a currently unreleased product. Case in point, PatentlyApple has discovered a patent that describes Spaces (virtual desktops) in use on a “Multifunction Device” that looks a lot like an iPad.

iPad… or Touchscreen Mac?
While the patent drawing does look like an iPad, I think it’s just as possible that the multifunction device could be any touchscreen display, even for a currently unreleased touchscreen Mac. I say this because the behavior described in the patent is similar to how Spaces works in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, where you sweep between Spaces by using the trackpad. It’s also reminiscent to the multitouch gestures you can enable for iPad by using developer tools with iOS 4.3. Those gesture similarities could even hint at further merging and sharing of features between future versions of iOS and Mac OS X.

Last year, multiple patents showed up for things like a MacBook tablet, MacBook Touch, and even an iMac Touch that runs both iOS and Mac OS X.

You can see more details of the patent at PatentlyApple. Remember, not all Apple patents see the light of day as a feature or a product, but they can give us great insight into what Apple is working on.

You can boot into Mac OS X verbose mode just once by holding down Command+V immediately after powering on a Mac (or immediately after reboot). You’ll know you’re in verbose mode because you’ll see lots of text reminiscent of the command line rather than your standard Mac OS X boot screen.

Verbose mode can be useful when troubleshooting Macs and developers often use it too. The standard user probably has no need to be in verbose, but it can still be fun to look at the underpinnings of Mac OS X. If you just hold down the key combination, your next reboot will be normal again, but you can also set your Mac to always boot in verbose mode.

Apple has released Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Developer Preview 2. The new build comes as 11A419 and presumably contains mostly bug fixes and feature refinements to an otherwise stable developer preview.

Download Mac OS X Lion Preview 2
Registered developers can access the download either through Software Update in Mac OS X Lion, through the Mac App Store, or as a standalone download through the Mac developer center.

If you skipped the first Developer Preview release and you want to try Developer Preview 2, you can dual boot and install Lion alongside 10.6 without formatting your drive. Note that you’ll want the standalone download if you choose this option.

Public Release Coming Soon
Apple announced last fall that Mac OS X Lion is scheduled for a summer release date, with WWDC 2011 looking as the most likely time for a launch. Recent rumors suggest it could even be sooner.

The New York Times recently put up their paywall, blocking users from reading over a certain number of articles a month. Their pricing scheme is sort of a mess but I can understand charging for quality content. That’s not really the point though, their paywall implementation makes it difficult for paying users to share content with nonpaying users. For instance, if you’re a paying iPad customer and you send an instant message to your friend with an article, and they already hit their monthly allowance, well, tough, they can’t read the article… or can they?

Beyond the Paywall: Reading New York Times Articles for Free

Using the magic of Google we can read New York Times articles for free. It takes about two seconds, here are the steps:

• Find the title of the article you want to read (Google is smart, you don’t need the exact title)
• Open google.com and type in the general title followed by ‘nytimes.com’ and search

The top result is pretty much guaranteed to be the article you’re looking for. Let’s use an example; someone wants to read the full NYT book review of “Physics of the Future” and we know the book is written by Michale Kaku, so my Google query to skirt the NYT paywall is this: “physics of future kaku nytimes.com” the key is here to include ‘nytimes.com’ at the end of the search time. Let Google do their magic and low and behold:

The first result is the Times book review we wanted to read. Great huh?

Even Faster: Paste the NYTimes.com URL into Google
If you’re sharing an exact URL with someone who hit their article limit, have them paste that directly into Google too. Then they just need to click on “I’m Feeling Lucky” and they’ll get pushed right beyond the paywall.
Read more »

Believe it or not, lines are still forming for iPad 2. Nearly anytime a store gets a shipment, they sell out within an hour or two (if you’re still looking, check iPad 2 stock at stores in your area) . Amazingly enough, this is going on around the world, as demand is far exceeding supply. What does this mean for sales numbers? Is Apple selling more or less than expected?

How many iPad 2′s has Apple sold?
At this point, it’s a guessing game. So far we’re left to analyst opinions, with some upwardly revising their sales forecasts. Charlie Wolf of Needham and Co (via AppleInsider) says that “the launch of the iPad 2 so far exceeded our expectations that it was evident our 2011 and 2012 shipment forecasts were dramatically low.” In Wolf’s case, he predicts that Apple will sell 30 million iPad 2′s this year, which is 10 million higher than they originally expected. With availability as constrained as it is, 30 million iPads a year doesn’t sound that outrageous to me, it might even be higher.

Apple Q2 FY11 Conference Call may have the answer
Apple has remained silent, but with constant sell outs and lines forming around the world, it isn’t much of a stretch to assume sales have been through the roof. The soonest we may hear some numbers from Apple could come on their Q2 FY11 conference call this April 20. The call starts at 2:00pm PST and you can listen live on Apple.com’s investors page.

The same way that you rotate screen orientation on a display connected to a Mac can be done with the built-in display of a MacBook, MacBook Pro, or MacBook Air (pictured).

• Launch System Preferences (quit it if it’s already open)
• Hold down the Command+Option keys and click on “Display”
• Look for ‘Rotation’ on the right side of the Display window and take your pick

After the display has been rotated, the resolutions adjust from width x height to height x width. Here’s a screenshot taken with the display on a MacBook Air set at 90° rotation:
Read more »

Are you bored with the Mt Fuji and Space wallpapers from Lion? Try out this 8-bit rendition of the default Mac OS X Snow Leopard Aurora wallpaper.

OK so it’s probably not quite 8-bit in terms of colors, but the pixelation brings back that retro feeling. Combine it with PixelSafari and you’ll be wishing you had antialiasing again in no time.

You can grab the full sized 2560×1600 version from SimpleDesktops, believe it or not, it actually looks pretty nice as a desktop background.

This was found on Twitter via @MacGasm.

Mac OS X 10.7 Lion features an enhanced version of Quick Look that allows for live webpage previews directly in the Spotlight menu. Looks nice huh?

Thanks for the tip & screenshot FB!

Just a few hours ago we found out the dates of WWDC 2011, and now the event is already sold out. Wow, think there’s much interest in this or what?

Despite being a developers conference, it’s safe to assume that a fair amount of tickets went to journalists, bloggers, and Apple fans as well. There’s no word yet on how many tickets the event included, or if the WWDC Student Scholarships are going to be affected by the sell out. We’ll keep you posted.

Update: Naturally, WWDC 2011 ticket scalpers are already trying to profit off of the sold out conference:

I wonder how many total tickets went to speculators and scalpers? If the iPad 2 is any indicator, there’s going to be a fair share of them out there.

We’ve become spoiled expecting a new iPhone every summer, but it looks like iPhone 5 will not be released at WWDC 2011 after all. Apple’s own WWDC press release states that the event will be a “preview of the future of iOS and Mac OS X” with no mention of hardware, but it’s the well-connected Jim Darymple who squishes the hardware talk:

Apple’s apparent focus on software in its WWDC announcement backs up what my own sources are saying about the annual conference. That is, expect a software show in 2011, not a hardware event.

Darymple then reminds us that WWDC is not intended to be a public event anyway, “It’s important to remember that this is a developer conference, not a consumer show.” This is true, but Apple has also used WWDC events in the past to unveil new iPhones, and there has been much speculation that the same would occur this year.

Further evidence that iPhone 5 may not be coming this summer comes from the Japanese Mac blog Macotakara, who cites sources in China who say that iPhone 5 has not begun manufacturing yet, and instead it may be released sometime in the fiscal 2012 quarter, which would be somewhere between October 2011 to March 2012.

While we might not see the iPhone 5 anytime soon, consumers actually will get a new iPhone this year… Apple has said the white iPhone 4 will be released in Spring of 2011.