Apple’s current chipset bedfellow, NVIDIA, has just announced that the first iteration of its upcoming Ion platform will come in desktop form, and should be expected this upcoming Spring.

The new architecture integrates Intel Atom processors with the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics card, making it a good candidate for netbooks, as many suspected the chipset’s inaugural device would likely be. Instead, the graphics card maker says the new desktop will be a “very small and affordable,” low-power consumption model…

While the demo they showed off was a tiny, black model, they say it will bear no resemblance to the actual, purchasable production model to arrive later this year. One candidate for the maker of that upcoming device? Apple, whose Mac mini seems to be languishing in neglect, with specs that are quickly becoming less and less appealing to the improvement-hungry tech crowd.

A Mac mini with an Intel Atom processor might not seem like a step in the right direction for those who were hoping for bump in processor power from the existing Intel Core 2 Duo processor, but according to NVIDIA’s accounts of the performance capabilities of the Ion platform, there might not be that many drawbacks for going with the lower-powered chip. For instance, the 9400M card should be able to handle 1080p video without issues, and even play many current video games at acceptable frame rates, which is not something that can be said for the current Mac mini models.

The idea of an Ion-based Mac mini is backed up by AppleInsider’s claims, based on investigations of code and other sources, that the next generation of Apple’s compact desktop will indeed be based on an NVIDIA chipset. Electronista points out, though, that Apple would likely shy away from a sub-$500 desktop, especially since it might cannibalize Apple TV sales.

That said, Apple may move to collapse, rather than expand their product line, releasing a Mac mini with Apple TV features built in, and splitting the difference between the two price points. Their recent survey of what Apple users would like out of Apple TV indicates that they are at least thinking about revamping the line, and this kind of product streamlining makes good fiscal sense in a troubled economy.

It’s about time for some real shakeups in Apple’s offerings, and this is an area where potential and actual growth has been demonstrated (Apple TV sales tripled last year). Plus, it would offer an additional product option for the top end of consumers, who already have an Apple notebook and desktop, and are looking for an HTPC, and it would appeal to entry level users who might otherwise seek out an Eee Box as an affordable alternative to the current Mac mini.

You’ll recall that Apple has been gradually increasing the options available to the free version of QuickTime, like full screen playback mode. Other features of the Pro version — like simple editing and export options — were unlocked with in a recent developer’s build of Snow Leopard…

Of course, this may be a way to let developers test all aspects of QuickTime, but we’re hoping that’s not the case. With the popularity of Apple’s video editing software like iMovie and Final Cut, it seems that simple cut-and-paste should be free with QuickTime. Launching one of those apps just to complete a simple edit is overkill. Kind of like swatting a fly with a Buick.

We’ve got our fingers crossed.

TUAW

“I can’t think of a better medium to deliver a content rich drivers education program to teenagers and new drivers who are preparing for their theory test”, says Eknath Kadam, the developer of the app…

“I can’t think of a better medium to deliver a content rich drivers education program to teenagers and new drivers who are preparing for their theory test”, says Eknath Kadam, the developer of the app.

• Accidents
• Alertness
• Attitude
• Documents
• Hazard Awareness
• Motorway Rules
• Other Types of Vehicle
• Road and Traffic Signs
• Rules of the Road
• Safety Margins
• Safety and Your Vehicle
• Vehicle Handling
• Vehicle Loading
• Vulnerable Road Users

The mock tests are designed to emulate the real test and contains randomly selected questions from each topic. You can time the test. Detailed results are shown with explanation for each question. The official highway code book can also be read on your iPhone or iPod Touch.

There is also a special module called Progress Meter to track your test progress. Progress Meter remembers all the tests you have given and present you bar chart averaging the progress in percentage. You can also reset the progress meter and start over again.

The apps, built in conjunction with speech specialists Acapela Group, feature a text translator to convert English phrases into other languages. But there’s also a text-to-speech feature, which pronounces the translated phrase in the targeted language.

The iSpeak apps come in eight languages: Dutch, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish. Each app costs $2. Future Apps says it plans to offer other languages soon.

Because of the text-to-speech feature, each iSpeak app is a pretty large download for an iPhone offering. Apps range in size from 80.5MB for iSpeak French to 182MB for iSpeak Swedish.

The computers being sold in Europe come in three models: Starter, Advanced, and Professional. The systems start at €499 ($645) and go up to €1,499.

Each system has a variety of build-to-order options, including having Mac OS X Leopard pre-installed…

Apple sued Psystar in July 2008, claiming the company violated its copyrights and licensing agreement when it sold a computer with Mac OS X installed on it. Apple’s end-user licensing agreement forbids Mac OS X from being installed on non-Apple hardware.

However, PearC feels that its computers are legal. In the FAQ section of the company’s Web site (as translated by Google Translate), its says that German law favors the end user, and the company believes its products are legal in Germany.

Since that’s the easiest way to see them live, I fired up mobile Safari on my iPhone and had a look at the three demos available. There are falling leaves, pulse, and a bouncing box. The falling leaves were probably the most impressive example of the potential this new tech offers, but all three were promising and looked good on the iPhone. They should soon be supported by Safari for the desktop as well, and they have been submitted for inclusion in the official CSS standards, as determined by the W3…

While it’s not clear yet what the limitations of the tech are in terms of interactivity, they do present a nice, simple alternative to overly complicated Flash animations, at least for visuals. Depending on how advanced the support for CSS animations and other effects becomes, Apple may see less of a need for supporting Flash. As the iPhone gains more hold in the mobile browser market, web designers could opt to code in CSS animation effects to reach a broader audience.

Regardless of what happens with Flash, CSS animation support is promising for iPhone users and developers alike, since it expands the canvas and promises more graphically-rich content. As long as it doesn’t result in this kind of thing.

Google has made its online catalog of books available in an iPhone-optimized web viewer — but Amazon is dropping hints it will expand its previously exclusive Kindle e-books to support other mobile devices.

On Friday, Google launched a mobile Google Book Search with finger-ready navigation for iPhone and iPod touch devices as well as handsets using its own Android mobile operating system.

The move gives iPhone owners access to about 1.5 million books available in the US (and about 500,000 international books) in the public domain either through expired copyrights or open licenses, all without having to download proprietary apps.

Google’s Book Search team says the feat of optimizing the collection was accomplished by using automatic text scanning to reformat the books for the small screens instead of using the raw page images. Some texts produced in difficult-to-scan formats aren’t immediately available but should be added as technology improves…

The feature is a challenge to App Store software like Classics and Stanza that also take advantage of the public domain to fill their libraries but which have custom interfaces for bookmarking and navigating texts.

Not to be left out, Amazon also hinted just before the launch that it would expand the Kindle format for e-books beyond its proprietary Kindle reader to a range of different devices.

“We are excited to make Kindle books available on a range of mobile phones,” Amazon spokesman Drew Herdener tells the New York Times. “We are working on that now.”

Which phones will get the copy-protected books aren’t known. However, the format has been built from the ground up for downloads and for viewing on relatively large screens like that of the dedicated Amazon reader, making iPhones and iPods possible (though far from certain) candidates. Paid electronic reading has become more commonplace on the Apple devices but has been curbed partly by a limited range of books to buy; Amazon, in turn, offers about 230,000 tiles, most of which are modern and are more likely to include bestsellers.

When any cellphone-ready version of the Kindle standard would appear is just as much of a mystery — though the company is slated to hold an event on Monday, February 9th that should introduce the iPod-like second-generation Kindle and may serve as a venue for other book-related announcements.

Apple Insider