Jun 3, 2008 Jun 5, 2008 Wednesday June 4, 2008
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U.K. and Canadian iTunes Stores Get Movies
Rentals are for 48 hours (as opposed to 24 here in the U.S.) for both stores. ★
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Time Machine Kernel Panic Backing Up to Time Capsule
Earlier this week, my MacBook Pro kernel panicked three times in six hours. It had never kernel panicked even once before. All three log files (which are written to /Library/Logs/PanicReporter/) implicated “backupd”, which is Time Machine, and which I was using to back up to Time Capsule. Turning off Time Machine made the panics stop. Ends up my friend Nat had the exact same problem last month. The same thing that worked for him worked me: using DiskUtility to repair the sparse disk image on the Time Capsule containing the backups for my machine. This is a nasty, nasty bug, though — most users would be screwed, because they’d never even figure out that the culprit is Time Machine, so they’d keep getting panics when, after restarting, Time Machine next starts a backup. ★
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Gary Krakow of MSNBC Says Apple Needs to License BlackBerry or Windows Mobile
Hard to believe this isn’t a joke. ★
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Plainview: chromeless browser for presentations
Filed under: Software Plainview is a full-screen browser based on WebKit specifically for presentations or situations where seeing browser chrome is undesirable. (I don't know, maybe you're making a presentation about oil.) It's wonderfully simple: Starting the software shows the Plainview start page. Enter a search term, or press command+L and you're off. Plainview has a set of key combinations to help during your presentation, and you can control-click anywhere to bring up a contextual menu. It can even import your Safari bookmarks. Saft can do this, I know, but if you don't like InputManager hacks, then Plainview is for you. [Via Swissmiss.]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Kinesis Freestyle
Filed under: Peripherals Kinesis (from the Greek kinetikos, or "damn you, carpal tunnel syndrome!") have released a Mac addition to their Freestyle line of ergonomic keyboards, which allow users to split the keyboard in half for optimal positioning. This is accomplished via Kinesis' Pivot Tether[TM] technology, which appears to be, uh, a cable that connects the two halves of the Freestyle. Kidding aside, this actually looks like a nice solution for those of us whose wrists are ravaged by unfriendly keyboards. I particularly love the big Esc/Force Quit button up on the top left -- clearly the design team at Kinesis has the same build of Firefox I do.$99 for the Freestyle and $40 each for the Incline and VIP snap-on accessories, which provide a 10 degree slope and wrist supports, respectively.[via Gizmodo]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Found Footage: Tom Servo's a Mac, and Crow's a PC
Filed under: Humor, Blast From the Past, Found Footage If you enjoyed Mystery Science Theater 3000 as much as I did (and still do), this clip from 1991 should warm your precious little heart. We find Servo having problems with his PC, and pining for the Mac that he used to have. Bonus references to WordPerfect 5.1, Amiga, and autoexec.bat! And System 7? "It's coming, OK?!"Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Apple Stores to host a variety of concerts
Filed under: iTS, Retail, iTunesIt's Black Music month, and Apple is celebrating. Along with the special section of the iTunes Store [link], Apple Stores in seven US cities will play host to live music events. Artists like Tiffany Evans, Malcolm Jamal Warner (yes, Theo), Wyclef Jean and Anthony David will perform at Atlanta, Miami, Chicago, San Francisco, New York, Santa Monica and Troy, Michigan Apple Stores. You can get the full schedule of appearances here.We can only assume that these performances will eventually be available in the iTunes Store. You'll notice that the new flagship store in Boston is missing from the list, but that's because Boston lacks a decent music scene.*[Via Ars Technica]*I can make this joke because I went to Berklee. Just simmer down.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Linkinus 1.3 brings split chats, embedded videos, and a performance boost
Filed under: Software, Cool tools, Odds and ends, Internet Tools Linkinus is the preferred IRC client for a lot of our readers, I know (personally I tend towards Colloquy, but only because I'm a cheapskate and it's donationware), and they kindly dropped us a note to let us know they'd updated to version 1.3. The new build includes the ability to split chat windows (as seen above), in addition to a revamped UI, "major" performance upgrades, plaintext and Spotlight support for logging, and a whole slew of fun things to play around with, including, we're told, a "Whisper" style that will actually embed images, audio files, and YouTube and Google videos right into your chat windows (a la Campfire). Apparently IRC isn't just text anymore.In fact, at $20 for all these features, Linkinus really is a steal for anyone who spends any amount of time in an IRC channel. Colloquy still does everything I need it to when I jump into IRC periodically, but if you want to chat like a pro in there, Linkinus is a great choice.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Apple: We are attending fewer trade shows each year
Filed under: Apple Corporate, AppleMacworld is reporting that Apple will not attend the Apple Expo in France this year. This year's expo is scheduled to take place on September 17 - 20. An Apple spokesperson was quoted by Macworld saying, "Apple is participating in fewer trade shows every year, because often there are better ways for us to reach our customers."Macworld notes that this was the same excuse given by Apple when they decided not to attend the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) tradeshow. Apple has, however, started using their Cupertino campus to host several special announcements including last year's iMac announcement and the recent iPhone SDK announcement.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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TUAW Gallery: Apple Vanity Plates
Filed under: Cult of Mac, Odds and ends, AppleIt looks like a lot of you TUAW readers have been pimpin' yo ride with Apple vanity plates.After a couple of weeks of waiting for these plate pics -- several readers had to wait for their cars to be detailed before shooting the glamour shot -- TUAW is proud to present this gallery of Apple cultism on wheels. Enjoy! Gallery: Apple Vanity PlatesRead | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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iTunes UK, Canada receive over 1200 movies; titles available same day as the DVDÂ release
There is good news for iTunes users living in the UK and Canada early Wednesday morning Apple added a massive amount of movies to both iTunes stores. It's true the iTunes UK and iTunes Canada are now featuring films from the following top movie studios; 20th Century Fox, The Walt Disney Studios, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. Entertainment, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM), Sony Pictures Television International and Lionsgate UK. The amount of movies that have been added to the both stores is huge, boasting over 700 films for the UK store and over 1200 films for the Canadian store. iTunes users will be able to watch popular titles like “Team America, World Police”, “300″, “Manchurian Candidate”, “Matrix”, “School of Rock”, “One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest”, “Reservoir Dogs”, “Hitman,â€? “I Am Legend,â€? “National Treasure 2: Book of Secretsâ€? and “Into the Wild” are on the list and will be available for purchase and rental. There's more, iTunes users will be able to purchase movies the same day they are released on DVD. That's one thing of the many things I like about iTunes service, having the ability to purchase a digital copy the same day it's released on DVD. I purchase the movie I want, and watch it on my Apple TV. I rarely go to the movie theater since I prefer to watch the movies at home so for me this is the perfect option. iTunes is currently the number one music retailer in the U.S. When the iTunes store first made its debut on January 9, 2001 the movies along with TV shows were only available to US customers. Although there was some video content available to those living outside the U.S it was limited to music videos and Pixar's short films. This is definitely good news for those living in the UK or Canada.
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iPhone 2.0 firmware details and information on second generation iPhone
Filed under: iPod Family, Rumors, WWDC, iPhone We've all heard the rumors that the iPhone 2.0 firmware would be out at WWDC 08, but we have received some information that begs to differ. According to the information that we have, it will be released late June/early July. This is because of Apple's deal with the cell carriers -- currently, Apple has to give the cell carriers a "first look" at the new firmware before it can ship; normally this takes around 1-2 weeks. According to our sources, the 2.0 firmware went gold master this week, which means it will be in the hands of the cell carriers for 1-2 weeks. If Apple doesn't have to fix anything in the firmware, then it will be released to the public -- otherwise, they will have to fix the problems and start the process over again.TUAW has also learned that pictures of the iPhone 2 which were posted on Engadget are, in fact, real. The second generation iPhone will include 3G and GPS functionality and will come in a glossy-black case. We have yet to learn any details on pricing. Update: While we have reason to believe that this picture is real, this is still a rumor and should be treated as such. [photo via Engadget]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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‘Pure Cocoa’
Jacqui Cheng’s report on the Snow Leopard rumors suggests, in the headline, that it “may be pure Cocoa”, and in the article: Something else that may happen is that Apple may eventually wrap everything in Cocoa—things that are currently only Carbon accessible will be no longer. This (which is reportedly not yet in stone) should make many Objective-C programmers happy, although those who are married to Carbon may get a bit bristly at the news. (Note: There may be some disagreement here as to what exactly “Cocoa-only” means, so take that into account when thinking about this. For example, Apple may only axe Carbon UI stuff.) The “pure Cocoa” stuff is about additional Cocoa wrappers for APIs that currently are only available in Carbon (and/or at the BSD level) — more stuff that developers can do using Objective-C APIs. It is not about dropping Carbon from the OS, which would make no sense. It’s a message for developers, not a description of Snow Leopard. ★
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Versions goes beta
Filed under: Software, Internet Tools, Beta Beat, Developer Almost a year ago, we wrote about Versions, a program designed to bring an intuitive and attractive interface to the Subversion version control system. Now, Made by Sofa has finally released the first beta.Although Versions isn't the only game in town for accessing Subversion repositories through methods other than the command line, it is certainly the best looking, and at least in the few minutes I've spent with it, the most Mac-like. The application is beautiful and the interface is very easy to use and understand. Continue reading Versions goes betaRead | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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★ ‘Snow Leopard’ at WWDC
Cory Bohon at TUAW breaks the news: TUAW has received some information that suggests Apple may be working to seed developers with an early build of Mac OS X 10.6 at this year’s WWDC. 10.6 will not include any new significant features from 10.5; instead, Apple is focusing solely on “stability and security.” We have also learned that OS X 10.6 may go gold master by December 2008 in an effort to start shipping it in January ‘09 at Macworld Expo. Mac OS X 10.6 will be a milestone release for Apple, as it will leave the PowerPC behind: a fully 64-bit clean, Intel-only Mac OS X. I’ve seen a lot of initial skepticism regarding this report, for obvious reasons: it seems too soon since Leopard shipped for another major Mac OS X release, and too soon to drop support for PowerPC. But after poking around this morning, I think Bohon’s report is correct. In short, if you’ve ever wished that Apple would spend more time focusing on making existing parts of the OS work better rather than adding new features, this is going to be the release for you. Sounds great to me. A big part of the effort, from what I’m hearing, is unifying the various branches of OS X at Apple: Mac OS X, iPhone OS, Apple TV, etc. There’s no good version number to describe a release like this. Based on previous Mac OS X version numbers, “10.5.5” would mean “the next minor bug-fix update after 10.5.4”, but “10.6” would mean “major new feature update”. This release is neither of those things. Mac OS X 10.1 is the most analogous fit, historically.1 But the name of this new release, which I’ve heard from several sources, fits perfectly: Snow Leopard. Like Leopard, but cooler, and adapted for a specific environment. I wouldn’t be surprised if Steve Jobs doesn’t even mention the number 10.6, and refers to the OS only by name. I still think it seems too soon by at least a year to drop PowerPC support — especially for G5s, which are still extremely capable machines by today’s standards — but that’s the word on the street. Classic Mac OS version numbers followed different, and at times, more arbitrary rules. Mac OS 8.5 was a much more impressive release than 8.0, which (8.0) was originally slated to be 7.7 but was upped to 8.0 to end “System 7” cloning licenses. And Mac OS 9.0 was developed as 8.7, etc. ↩
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Versions — New Mac Subversion Client
Public beta release of the very slick-looking desktop Subversion client for Mac OS X, with the noble but bold goal of making Subversion version control understandable to non-developers. Includes integration with Beanstalk for free SVN hosting — a great idea for solving the problem where you can’t use a Subversion client without having a repository yet. ★
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Goopy
The artist behind WebKit’s SquirrelFish logo. ★
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TUAW Reports Mac OS X 10.6 to Debut at WWDC
Cory Bohon at TUAW: TUAW has received some information that suggests Apple may be working to seed developers with an early build of Mac OS X 10.6 at this year’s WWDC. 10.6 will not include any new significant features from 10.5; instead, Apple is focusing solely on “stability and security.” We have also learned that OS X 10.6 may go gold master by December 2008 in an effort to start shipping it in January ‘09 at Macworld Expo. Mac OS X 10.6 will be a milestone release for Apple, as it will leave the PowerPC behind: a fully 64-bit clean, Intel-only Mac OS X. I’ve seen a lot of skepticism regarding this report, and I didn’t believe it at first either — it seems too soon since Leopard shipped, and too soon to drop support for PowerPC (especially late model G5 hardware). But after poking around this morning, I think Bohon’s report is correct. In short, if you’ve ever wished that Apple would spend more time focusing on making existing parts of the OS work better rather than adding new features, this is going to be the release for you. Sounds great to me. ★
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The iPhone's Tholian Web of coverage
In the last few days Apple has added iPhone carriers in two more countries: Movistar in Spain, and SoftBank in Japan. When I first compiled this list, 8 countries had iTunes stores but lacked iPhone carriers. Now, only Luxembourg and the Netherlands do. It's been remarkable to see the gaps filled in as inexorably as the Tholian Web. If you haven't seen that Star Trek episode, while the Enterprise and its crew are immobilized with Captain Kirk caught in an space-time drift, the Tholians, an alien race, patiently begin weaving a web around the Enterprise to trap them forever. Apple seems to be weaving a global web now to press their advantage while their competitors seem relatively immobilized by the iPhone's success and superiority. In the Star Trek episode, the Enterprise and Kirk escape just in time. We'll see how things fare with the iPhone, but the web is almost complete. Here's the updated list of countries, carriers, and whether those countries already have iTunes Stores: Country Carrier Already has iTunes Store? Argentina Claro no Australia Optus & Vodafone Yes Austria One & T-Mobile Yes Belgium Mobistar Yes Brazil Claro no Canada Rogers Yes Chile Claro no Colombia Comcel no Czech Republic Vodafone no Denmark TeliaSonera Yes Dominican Republic Claro & Orange no Ecuador Porta no Egypt Mobinil & Vodafone no El Salvador Claro no Estonia TeliaSonera no Finland TeliaSonera Yes France Orange Yes Germany T-Mobile Yes Greece Vodafone Yes Guatemala Claro no Honduras Claro no India Bharti Airtel & Vodafone no Ireland O2 Yes Italy Telecom Italia & Vodafone Yes Jamaica Claro & MiPhone no Jordan Orange no Japan SoftBank Yes Latvia TeliaSonera no Lithuania TeliaSonera no Luxembourg - Yes Mexico Telcel no Netherlands - Yes New Zealand Vodafone Yes Nicaragua Claro no Norway TeliaSonera Yes Paraguay Claro no Peru Claro no Philippines Globe Telecom no Poland Orange no Portugal Optimus & Vodafone Yes Puerto Rico Claro no Romania Orange no Singapore SingTel Mobile no Slovakia Orange no South Africa Vodacom no Spain Movistar Yes Sweden TeliaSonera Yes Switzerland Orange Yes Turkey Vodafone no UK O2 Yes Uruguay Claro no USA AT&T Yes
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Colin McRae Rally Mac
I've been hooked on Mario Kart Wii since it was released, but there's been a disconnect for me. Like “Grand Theft Auto”, it doesn't carry over the level of realism that I experience when I'm out driving a real car - whether it be to run errands, or to race in the Indy 500. Think about it - do you really go and drive around, throwing banana peels at other people? We use these games for escapism, which is great, but it's nice to have a level of realism to them. Despite all of its fun, that's what Mario Kart lacks. I remember playing Microsoft's “Monster Truck Madness” 10 years ago… it was a good step in that direction, but was limited by the graphics technology of the time. Furthermore, I tried it with the Force Feedback wheel that Microsoft was selling at the time, and the experience was just. not. good. So the new magic line that these kinds of games need to cross in the “realism” category is something that's fast and responsive (like a real car), and has a photorealistic experience. Colin McRae Rally Mac (from Feral Interactive) has addressed these concerns. Some of the other racing games I've played (even the Gran Tourismo or Need for Speed-type titles) still seem to pull the common cartoon physics; or they try but they aren't close enough, so it ends up being more frustrating than fun. It's been a while since my last “real” (Nascar or stock car) racing game, so I was interested to see how this game played. (more…)
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sipgate offers VoIP service for iPhone
Filed under: Software, iPhoneSan Francisco-based sipgate, Inc. is offering software for your jailbroken iPhone to make and receive VoIP calls using any SIP-compatible VoIP service. The service appears to be similar to those offered by Fring and PhoneGnome. The service is in early beta stage, with several caveats mentioned on its FAQ page. You won't be alerted to incoming calls unless the software is running, which drains the battery with some quickness. The company also promises revisions for the upcoming App Store. It's unclear if the setup suffers the same kind of delay and echo problems that other VoIP solutions do. Plus, it may eat your firstborn. Seriously. It says it right there. If you're interested in testing out the product, sipgate is also throwing in 111 free minutes if you sign up for their own VoIP service. The software is free, and requires iPhone firmware 1.1.4. Thanks, Martin!Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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iTunes movies come to Canada as well
Filed under: iTSUK readers aren't the only ones who can now purchase and rent movies via iTunes, Canadian readers will be happy to note they can get in on the fun as well. Interestingly the viewing period for rentals in Canada also lasts for 48 hours, which leads me to believe that the US window will also increase (though we have no information to confirm that).The Canadian store has over 1,200 movies to buy, 200 of which you can rent. The pricing is as follows: CAN$9.99 to purchase catalog titles CAN$14.99 to get recently released movies CAN$19.99 to purchase new movies CAN$3.99 for renting a library title (a dollar more for HD) CAN$4.99 for new release rental (a dollar more for HD) Thanks to everyone who sent this in.Update: I assumed you all knew I meant 'UK reader's when I said 'Japanese readers' in the first sentence. I blame the overwhelming excitement of this news. The error has been corrected.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Apple’s Next Big Cat to Make WWDC Debut?
It seems just like yesterday that we were celebrating Leopard's release. But if rumors hold true, we could be celebrating another big cat's release come January 2009. According to a rumor first spotted over at TUAW, Apple may be planning to unveil Mac OS X 10.6 at next week's WWDC in San Francisco, with a planned ship date in January 2009. There have been some rumblings of 10.6 lately; some intrepid souls found references to 10.6 in the iPhone SDK installer, as well as in WebKit, the engine powering Safari. If this rumor is true, 10.6 would be released a mere 15 months after 10.5. While Apple has released major Mac OS X versions that close (and closer) together before, it's been a while since we've seen a new version so soon. Since we have a few days until Lord Jobs' WWDC keynote, let's play a quick game of Name That Kitty! My money's on “Cougar.” I like the sound of it and have hoped Apple would go with it for a while now. What sayeth thou? Post a comment!
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iTunes UK gets rentals
Filed under: iTS, iTunesApple fans across the pond have long complained about their inability to purchase or rent movies from within iTunes. Those users now have reason to celebrate (and maybe give that Apple TV some use), as movies are now available in the UK iTunes Store!According to the press release, 700 titles are available to purchase or rent, with over 100 titles available in high-definition. Some films will be available to purchase the same day as the DVD release.When it comes to rentals, the policy seems to be pretty much the same as the US store, with one notable exception: the rental period is 48 hours. That should make LOTS of UK users happy.Pricing is as follows: £6.99 for library titles £10.99 for new releases £2.49 for library rentals £3.49 for new release rentals High definition rentals will be £1 more Thanks to everyone who sent this in!Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Domo arigato, the iPhone is coming to Japan
Filed under: iPhoneThe internationalization of the iPhone continues as SoftBank Mobile, Japan's third-largest mobile operators, has announced that it has signed an agreement with Apple to sell the iPhone in the "Land of the Rising Sun" later this year.Although not detailed in the press release, I expect that the Japanese iPhone will be very different, internally, from its counterparts from other parts of the world. Not only will the phone have to be W-CDMA (GSM is not deployed in Japan, though some other SoftBank phones are dual-band GSM/W-CDMA for international roaming), there may be other locks tying the phone to the carrier.Thanks to everyone who sent this in![via: Reuters]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Mac OS Ken: 06.04.2008
Pacific Crest Analyst: Tone Down iPhone Expectations a Tiny Bit / iPhone Atlas: Apple Admits More iPhone Developers as WWDC Looms / Laptop Magazine: Jobs 2nd Most Influential Person in Mobile Technology / TUAW: Signs of Mac OS X 10.6? / Report: Apple Addresses Ditching Apple Expo 2008 / Apple Launches Back to School Campaign for 2008 / Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and UK Head to iTunes U / Asustek Aims for iMac Style with Eee Monitor in September / Purdue University Offers CSI: iMac / Aspyr Pushes Back Call of Duty 4 for Mac Release / Electronic Arts Releases Monopoly for iPod / Radiohead Catalogue (Finally) Finds iTunes