According to the manufacturer, maybe. Intrepid Apple blognaut Leander Kahney rang up Apple, asked the question above, and got a response. This was more than we got when several of us asked Apple multiple variations of the same question. Apple's statement, as seen on Cult of Mac:


Well that's clear as mud, isn't it?

Apple points to a knowledgebase article here, indicating how much instability you might expect after jailbreaking your iPhone. Of course, now that jailbreaking is legal, Apple can't really go after anyone doing it, but that doesn't mean they have to support your functionality habit, either. Because, as Apple has vaguely worded, it might void your warranty. Not that it will -- because if you don't mess with baseband and restore your phone, no one would be the wiser. A simple complete restore really does bring your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad back to factory conditions.

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Today Monsoon Multimedia is announcing the Vulkano, a universal video platform that integrates DVR, Web video, streaming and time shifting of media from the home to a portable device, including the iPhone, iPad, and Macs or PCs. It also supports streaming to Android, Blackberry, Symbian and WM6 phones or devices.

Prices range from US $259 to $379 depending on the storage capacity customers desire. The $379 device stores 1 Terabyte. The company says it will introduce a 3G capable app for the iPhone next month.

Among the functions available are:

• Triggering recording from a remote device
• Playback of recordings on iPads, PCs and Macs in the home and remotely
• Browsing of an electronic program guide for shows and episode information
• Access photos, video and music on your home TV from UPnP supported devices
• Connects to cable, DVD, satellite, DVR and Tivo
• Streams using H.264 and MPEG-4 standards at rates as low as 150kpbs
• Connects wirelessly to home router

Although not currently in the product software, the company says it will offer free upgrades that include Google TV, Yahoo!, Netflix, Hulu and other services in the 'near future.'

"We designed Vulkano from the ground up to replace single purpose solutions, such as TiVo, Roku, Slingbox, etc," said Steve Stone, CTO at Monsoon. "In the coming months we will be pushing new apps to Vulkano owners for free so they can rest assured that this is the first and last product they'll need for all their TV and Internet media needs."

We're going to get a review unit soon and can give you our own impressions. For a full description take a gander at the Vulkano website. Monsoon is taking pre-orders for an estimated August 10 shipping date. It will be interesting to watch the consumer reaction to this device. It is very Apple friendly and if it is easy to use and set up Monsoon will have a winner.

Judging from the number of entries for our recent giveaway of two OtterBox iPad cases, most of you are familiar with the excellent products made by the Colorado company. Shortly after the end of the iPad case giveaway, I was surprised to find another box at my door from OtterBox containing one of the "bullet-proof" Defender cases for the iPhone 4.

No, an OtterBox Defender isn't going to save your iPhone 4 from a speeding bullet, but it can definitely keep your device clean and safe in a variety of tough conditions. TUAW reader Scott B. sent us an email today describing his experience with an iPhone Defender case, which reads "I received my Otterbox Defender Case for my IPhone 4, three days ago. It is great. I had one for my 3GS and it fell into a mud puddle. The case totally protected the phone. I now feel better having my IPhone 4 so well protected."

It's not often that we get unsolicited reader love for an iPhone case, which tells you just how special the OtterBox products are. Read along for a short review of the Defender for iPhone 4, and see how you can have a chance to get one from TUAW.

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Here's a fun video of four generations of the iPhone -- original, 3G, 3GS, and 4 -- performing the same tasks simultaneously. From launching intensive apps like Plants vs. Zombies and Google Earth to shutting down and booting up, the differences in task durations are often significant.

As you'd expect, the iPhone 4 out-performed its peers on most tasks. For example, it had Plants vs. Zombies ready to play in 8.5 seconds, while the original iPhone took 26 seconds to reach the same point. Likewise, the iPhone 4 had Google Earth ready to go in 21.4 seconds while the original took just over 37 seconds.

Now, don't think the iPhone 4 won every contest, because it didn't. The original iPhone was the first to complete the shutdown process at 8.2 seconds, while the 3GS was the first to successfully boot up at 26.4 seconds.

You can watch the video after the break.

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Rounding out the list of hardware updates from Apple this morning is a battery charger. Before you dismiss it (as I initially did) as just a battery charger, consider the following.

First, Apple is pushing its green aspects. For example, the charger is smart enough to pull less power once the batteries are fully charged. In fact, Apple claims that it has the lowest standby power usage than any similar charger on the market (more on that in a minute). Also, Apple notes that the 6 batteries that ship with it are able to hold a long charge over hundreds of charges. Expect to get 10 years of use out of them, Apple says. The idea is that users will pull less power from the grid and use fewer batteries with Apple's charger.

Also consider that this is another step towards Apple's making "the whole widget." For example, you can now buy a computer, mouse, keyboard, Magic Trackpad, batteries and battery charger all from Apple. Who says Steve's a control freak?

Finally, let's compare it to a charger I currently own, the Engergizer Rechargeable 15 Minute Charger. When I say "own," I mean "despise." Yes, it charges batteries in 15 minutes, and they'll hold that charge for almost as long! It's also huge (it uses one socket and covers the other) and heats up like an iron forge. For $32 it ships with 4 batteries, compared to the 6 Apple gives you for $29.

Yes, it's a battery charger. But it's also been infused with Apple magic.

Today's app is going to blow your mind. Back in 1986, artist Mike Wilks published a book called The Ultimate Alphabet, which featured 26 different paintings, each filled with items that corresponded to the letters of the alphabet; the letter A painting contains airplanes, ants, an apple tree, and so on. There are more than 7,777 words represented in the book, with lots more little secrets hidden in the paintings; there are letters encoded in Morse code or semaphore, obscure symbolism, and visual gags.

The book was part of a competition with a big cash prize, which was solved in 1988, when Wilks published The Annotated Ultimate Alphabet; it included descriptions and clues for each of the items hidden in the extremely detailed paintings. Now, a company named Toytek has begun to bring the book to the iPad, and it allows you to interactively explore some of Wilks' paintings and their extremely deep complexity.

As you can see above, it's wild; you tap on an item, enter the actual name, and then the book will tell you whether it's right or provide clues for the word you're looking for. The app is free to try, though it's prohibitively expensive if you want to purchase everything. You can buy the letters in bundles, and the full purchase price eventually comes out to around US $45 in total. That's pricey, although it's the same cost as the printed book, and you get the interactivity for free. Still, it's a great idea, and there is a free trial if you want to check it out.

At long last, Apple has updated the Cinema Display line with a new 27-inch LED model that will ship later this year. With its 2560 x 1440 resolution, your pixels will enjoy 60% more elbow room than on the 24-inch LED model.

In addition to the extra real estate, this model offers an iSight camera, mic and speakers, plus a powered USB 2.0 hub (3 ports) and MagSafe connector to charge your laptop. The display includes ambient light sensor, which adjusts the display's brightness in response to the light in a room.

Apple's also keen to describe the display's environmental friendliness, noting that it uses mercury-free LED technology, arsenic-free glass and recyclable materials. Additionally, the display meets Energy Star 5.0 requirements and achieves EPEAT Gold status.

It sure sounds nice, and it will be available in September for US$999. Note that it requires a Mac with a Mini DisplayPort.

Perhaps you're the kind of Mac user who regarded the eight-core Mac Pro and thought "Who would ever need more than eight cores?" In that case, you can skip ahead to the next post, because this morning Apple announced a revised Mac Pro lineup with BTO options for dual 6-core Xeon processors. Yes indeed, 12 cores of pure oomph -- shipping next month.

The tale of the tape: The new quad-core Mac Pro comes in at US$2499 with

• one 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon W3530 processor with 8MB of fully-shared L3 cache;
• 3GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM memory, expandable up to 16GB
• ATI Radeon HD 5770 with 1GB of GDDR5 memory
• two Mini DisplayPorts and one DVI (dual-link) port
• 1TB Serial ATA 3Gb/s hard drive running at 7200 rpm
• 18x SuperDrive® with double-layer support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
• four PCI Express 2.0 slots
• five USB 2.0 ports and four FireWire® 800 ports, Bluetooth and 802.11n, keyboard & Magic Mouse

• two 2.4 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon E5620 processors with 12MB of fully-shared L3 cache per processor;
• 6GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM memory, expandable up to 32GB
• ATI Radeon HD 5770 with 1GB of GDDR5 memory
• two Mini DisplayPorts and one DVI (dual-link) port
• 1TB Serial ATA 3Gb/s hard drive running at 7200 rpm
• 18x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
• four PCI Express 2.0 slots
• five USB 2.0 ports and four FireWire® 800 ports, Bluetooth and 802.11n, keyboard & Magic Mouse

Processor BTO options range from four cores up to the aforementioned 16; the full matrix includes "Westmere" Xeon X5670 chops running at up to 3.33GHz on the single-chip machine and 2.93GHz on the dual-processor model. Only the dual-processor model can achieve dodecacore status.

Mac Pros now offer the ATI Radeon HD 5770 graphics processor with 1GB of memory, with a BTO option of the ATI Radeon HD 5870 with 1GB of memory. Display output options include two Mini DisplayPorts and one dual-link DVI port. For storage, the 512GB SSD is now an option, and if you're feeling particularly flush you can load up with four of them.

As noted above, the machines will ship in August; the Apple Store is currently still shipping the older models.

Today, Apple released the Magic Trackpad, calling it "...a multi-touch Bluetooth trackpad meant to work with your desktop computer." It certainly resembles an oversized MacBook Pro trackpad (in fact, it's 80% larger) perched atop the same battery case that's on Apple's Bluetooth keyboards. In fact, it sits at the same height and angle as the keyboard, so you can move back and forth easily.

When paired with an Apple desktop, it offers the same multi-touch gestures that laptop owners enjoy. Use it to swipe, pinch and scroll. Inertial scrolling on the Magic Trackpad reacts to the pressure and speed you use.

The surface is made of wear-resistant glass and, get this: the entire thing is also a giant button, so click away as you would with a mouse.

We first saw a trademark filing for the name back in February and FCC approval in July. Back in June, a leaked photo of what we were then calling the "Magic Slate" appeared, and many wondered if it would be revealed at WWDC '10. The Magic Trackpad is available now for US$69.

After some early morning downtime, Apple's store is now back and featuring new iMac configurations. Full details are on the iMac technical specifications page. The new systems offer Intel Core i3, i5, and i7 processors (no more Core 2 Duo!) with improved graphics and new Magic Trackpad support.

The refreshed machines include dual core processors from 3.06 GHz up to 3.6 GHz, and quad core processors from 2.8 GHz up to 2.93 GHz. Hard drives go up to 2TB and the iMac also supports a drool-worthy 256 GB solid state drive option. Standard RAM includes 4GB of 1333 MHz DDR3 SDRAM with four SO-DIMM slots, allowing up to 16GB. The 21.5" model maxes out with a 3.6GHz Core i5 chip, and the 27" tops out with a 2.93GHz quad-core i7 chip.

Graphic options on the new machines include the ATI Radeon HD 5750. The new machines add support for the SDXC memory card format as well. The 27-inch model also supports dual hard drives as a BTO option.

Apple's press release covers the new models' speedy goodness.