Jul 2, 2008 Jul 4, 2008 Thursday July 3, 2008
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MacBook Air SSD prices drop
Filed under: Deals, MacBook AirIt looks like Apple has a nice little surprise for anybody in the market for the SSD equipped MacBook Air. The price on the Apple Store for the 64GB SSD upgrade on the 1.6GHz Air has dropped to $599 from $999. Similarly the price of the 1.8GHz Air (equipped with the SSD standard) has dropped to $2598 from $3098.Needless to say, the SSD is still a pretty penny and there's some controversy about how much it helps battery life. But if you've been waiting for one it looks like this is your lucky day.Thanks, Keisha!Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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TripLog/1040
Check out the UI on this upcoming iPhone app from Palm OS developer Stevens Creek Software. This is not a joke. (Via Macworld.) ★
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MacNotables #827: Jim Dalrymple Updates His Album Project, Evaluates the iPhone 3G and Condemns Rogers
Jim Dalrymple delivers an update on his album project, laments a lack of pre-amp inputs, discusses the response from readers and admits to the amount of work it involves. Jim then focuses on the iPhone 3G, talking about how it stacks up to the competition, what he expects from the iPhone Apps Store, and why Rogers, the iPhone carrier for Canada, is viewed as taking gross advantage of their customers. (more…)
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International iPhone pricing guide
Filed under: iPhoneOn July 11, 2008, the iPhone 3G will be launching all over the world. As the release date draws near, we have been inundated with tips from readers about international 3G launch dates and prices. In an attempt to try to keep the information organized in one place, I (stupidly, perhaps) volunteered to create a table containing the data from every country that is releasing the iPhone 3G on July 11 (plus France, which is launching on July 17). I did my best to provide the most accurate information, although some carriers have yet to release official information.If you see any errors, please let me know -- I can update the table and the results will correct themselves immediately on this page. Thanks to everyone who sent in links that helped contribute to this information! Permalink | Email this | Comments
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How Pixar Created the ‘Wall-E’ Visual Style
Fascinating Animation World Magazine story on the steps Pixar took to make Wall-E look and feel like a traditional film by mimicking the limitations and optics of real-world cameras. Director of photography Jeremy Lasky: We used a spherical lens as a kind of control to look at depth of field and barrel distortion and the optical breathing you get when you rack from things really close to really far away. It gave us a chance to have something tangible. We used an Arriflex camera with Panavision lenses. We looked at lens flares and how to focus lights in the background. There’s that shot in the truck [his home] when EVE’s looking at the lighter for the first time from WALL-E’s POV and you see the bouquet stretched in the background. And this is the kind of thing we discovered doing those tests. (Via Daily Kos.) ★
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Firefox 3 Download Day a huge success
Filed under: Software, Freeware, Internet Tools, Open Source The graphic above says it all -- Firefox 3 Download Day was a success, with 8,002,530 downloads in 24 hours. Amazingly, this happened despite all of the initial download glitches that happened on Download Day. The Mozilla team is reporting that 29,116,621 copies of Firefox 3 have been downloaded as of 1:13 PM ET today.If you signed up for Download Day notifications, you'll receive this email as well and you can get your own cheesy certificate, suitable for framing (or not). Since I downloaded Firefox 3, I've been enjoying some of the plugins that are now residing at the bottom of my browser (Twitterfox and the Accuweather Forecastfox plugin). Firefox 3 seems faster to me, and I like the way it displays sites that are using certificates by putting a wide, clickable banner in the address bar. What are your opinions about Firefox 3?Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Finding Jobs 2.0
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Apple Corporate, Steve Jobs, AppleIs it even possible? Forbes does a little bit of speculating on just who might take over when Jobs takes his leave from Apple, and candidates aren't exactly jumping out of the woodwork. Jobs is about as visionary as they come -- only a guy like Steve could lead Apple from the iMac to the iPod to the iPhone, breaking records and status quo the whole time. Phil Schiller and Scott Forstall are tossed out as two names currently within Apple's ranks, but Jobs is almost as much of a company mascot as he is a CEO. As consultant Patrick Sweeney says in the article, anyone who steps into the turtleneck has to fit completely into the culture of the company, or it won't work.And forget the day-to-day and design decisions -- who's going to stand on stage and say "boom" at WWDC and Macworld? Here at TUAW, we're pretty sure the rumors of Jobs' ill health are exaggerated; he's probably not going anywhere anytime fast. But at the same time, it's hard to imagine an Apple without him at all.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Get A Blast From The Past With “Old� Apps For Your Mac
There are times – especially when I sit and wait a few minutes for Office apps to start – when I sit back reminisce about using Microsoft Word on my old, trusty Mac Plus (and later SE). It was a peppy little program that did word processing very well without all the bloat that we see today. Sadly, Microsoft is not the only company producing software where newer does not alwas mean better. Unless you are diligent about keeping installers or install media around, finding copies of older applications is not always easy. Developers do not like to have old versions floating around as they can create a support nightmare. If you are pining for a program that lives solely in the past you may not need to look further than mac.oldapps.com. The site (and its sister sites for other platforms) houses old versions of software for your Mac and boasts a library of 490 previous versions of 33 Mac programs (which are not limited to OS X). For example, you can go all the way back to the beginning of iTunes, flip back to more peppy versions of Acrobat Reader and even see just how ugly modern sites look with Internet Explorer relics. As you browse their library and stroll down memory lane it is important to remember a this caveat: many developers use new, major versions to fix security bugs in their programs and you may be exposing yourself to vulnerabilities that your anti-virus/malware software offer no protection against. Be sure the functionality/usability you need is worth the potential security trade-off. If you do use their library of ancient wares, read up on their purpose and consider using the PayPal link on that page to say “thank you!” (and help with hosting charges). Also, if you know of any other sites that offer old versions of Mac software or have your own story to reminisce about, drop a note in the comments. [Props to Ryan Naraine for the serendipitous link today.]
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Transgaming makes deal with Ubisoft
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Software, Odds and endsFirst EA, and now gaming giant Ubisoft has inked a deal with Transgaming to wrap their titles in Cider and port them over to the Mac. Which seems like great news -- Ubisoft has a huge number of quality titles, and bringing those to the Mac must be great for gamers who appreciate a better operating system. But not so fast.First things first, Cider hasn't exactly proven itself in terms of making great games, or even ports for that matter. And apparently Ubisoft is taking it slow -- rather than bring us games like Prince of Persia, Assassin's Creed or the great Rainbow Six Vegas series, we're getting... wait for it... Catz and Dogz. Oh, and CSI: Hard Evidence, which was hardly a blockbuster on game shelves.It's definitely good news that Mac gamers are getting more to play, but if this is all we're going to get, they can keep it. If they wanted to port us Far Cry 2 when it comes out, or maybe even the long-awaited Beyond Good and Evil 2 whenever it's done, awesome. But if all we're going to get is years-old bottom-of-the-barrel crapware, we'll stick with original Mac game developers, thanks.[via Big Download]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Mac 101: System Preferences
Filed under: OS, Mac 101This is another entry in our continuing Mac 101 series, aimed at new Mac users. These tips are old hat for veteran Mac users, but will save some people a lot of grief.I know several people who have switched from Windows to the Mac over the past year. While they're happy with their decision, they all tell me the same thing: "I don't know where to find anything." Typically, the topic arises when they're looking for the "control panel" to change a system setting. Since Apple's System Preference panel looks different that the Windows Control Panel, it isn't immediately helpful. Until they ask it what they're looking for.There's a small search box in the upper right-hand corner of the System Preferences window. Typing a keyword or two into that field reveals just where that function lives with a "spotlight" effect. For example, if I want to adjust my alert volume, typing "volume" highlights the Sound panel. This method also provides helpful text. For example, typing "email" produces this list Email faxes Email and chat restrictions (parental controls) Limiting email and instant messages Sending permission emails Each is accompanied by a link in the preference pane. The search results aren't flawless, of course, but they're better than staring at a field of unfamiliar icons, and have brightened the Mac experience for many a switcher.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Will higher data plan costs hurt iPhone 3G sales?
Service plan rates for the iPhone 3G are higher than existing iPhone plans, and that’s causing some people to reconsider whether they’ll buy a new phone when it’s released next week. A pair of Macworld editors share their points of view.
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Renew your old iPhone with Flipswap
Filed under: iPod Family, iPhoneYesterday, we asked iPhone owners who intend to upgrade just what they'll do with their 1st generation iPhones. Thousands of you answered, with Ebay drawing the top score.Of course, Ebay will be flooded with iPhones soon, so consider alternatives like Flipswap. They offer cash for iPhones (and other model phones) and even pay for shipping. Once they've gotten your phone, they put it back in use.If you're the environmentally consicous type, you'll appreciate this. Phones that cannot be put back into use are disposed of, piece by piece, in "...the greenest methods available today." Also, in lieu of cash, you can trade in your dead phone for a tree as part of their reLeaf Program. Flipswaps estimates they'll plant up to 25,000 trees this year (they take old iPods, too!). It's free, easy and definitely worth the consideration. [Via Lifehacker]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Scribblet: menubar scratchpad
Filed under: Freeware I often find myself in need of a the digital equivalent of a scratch pad: just an open text-field to jot down a phone number, save some text for a blog comment, etc. These are not really things I want to save, so I don't want to open a word processor or even use the snippet manager of my choice (Yojimbo). So Scribblet appeals to me in its focus on one basic task. (I've never been a fan of Stickies.)It's a menubar application that does one simple thing: pop up a small notepad; that's it. It doesn't allow for multiple notes or snippet management. It's simply a scratch pad that pops up with a simple click on the menubar or by hitting a user-definable hotkey. Despite, or rather because of, its simplicity I find it quite handy and it has earned a spot on my menubar. Scribblet is a free download from not salad.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Missing the Big Picture
There is a lot of buzz surrounding music labels' agreements to sell DRM-free music in marketplaces other than the iTunes Music Store. The problem is that they miss the big picture. They don't pay attention to the two things that really matter. People want to be able to buy their music easily People want their purchased music to work on their devices The iTunes Music Store allows people to easily purchase music. They set the precedence with a $0.99 price point, and everyone is following suit. They showed that if it is easy to purchase music and easy to listen to it again, they will pay that price. The problem is that with the (barely) exception of Amazon.com's mp3 store, the price point has stayed the same 99 cents. People will still pay that price, and DRM-free music is certainly enticing for those of us that even understand that. Many people don't realize that DRM even exists. To make things worse, some companies try to charge $1.99/song for downloading it straight to your phone. It just doesn't make sense. So, you get a less-than-the-easiest interface for downloading music, and it costs about the same or more, and these companies want to bite in to Apple's market share? I don't think so. If they want to bite into Apple's bottom line, they need to offer something more than what iTunes offers. Yeah, it is DRM-free, but other than that, there is nothing. Russ Crupnick, senior analyst for NPD group had it right when he said: “When you have 80 percent market share on Apple devices…there isn't much demand from people to get unprotected music. They don't seem to encounter any issues with it.” I am a big fan of tossing out DRM and all, but differentiating in only the DRM category is not enough. These DRM-free shops will get the Apple haters, but not much more. To make themselves stand out and sell more, make a daring move and sell the music for much cheaper. People will continue to buy music from iTunes until something better comes along. Is it greed? If I could buy two songs from one vendor for the price of one iTunes song, and the quality was just as good as anywhere else (if not better), what would stop me from buying those two songs instead of downloading one song from iTunes? Nothing but ease of use. If the song could be downloaded and automatically added to my iTunes Library, I would do that in a heartbeat. Who wouldn't? Pirates will exist as long as it is easier to steal music than it is to buy it. Allofmp3.com had a good idea when pricing songs by the data size instead of a straight price. It was illegal which is not cool, but many people went to great lengths to purchase songs from that website. You could get between four and seven songs for the cost of one iTunes song. Music labels can create a site just like that and iTunes would immediately feel the pain. It would be so easy to get a lot of music for so cheap, that many people just wouldn't bother pirating music. There will always be those who break the law, and so there will always be people who pirate music. But instead of borrowing a CD from my friend, I would much rather just go to a website and buy the album for a couple bucks. People will always want value for the money they spend. If Rhapsody, Napster, Amazon, Microsoft, and anyone else wants to take market share away from Apple, they need to change their tune, start making it easier to get cheaper, DRM-free music into our iTunes libraries, and the money will follow.
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Australian iPhone pricing announced
Filed under: iPhoneOptus has released information on iPhone plan pricing for Australia. There are two options: post-paid and pre-paid.The post-paid option includes what they're calling a "Cap Plan" and a "Yes Plan." The Cap Plan (all prices are Australian dollars) starts at $19 and offers 100MB of mobile internet data and $50 of calls and text, and maxes out at 1GB of data and $1500 of calls for $179.All Cap Plans include free 20-minute voice calls to other Optus GSM mobiles in Australia (within hourly restrictions), and free 5-minute voice calls to phones on the same account, 24/7.The Yes Plans start at $19 for 100MB of data and $14 of calls, and maxes out at 1GB of data and $144 of calls for $149. There are several text and rollover options for both.The pre-paid options offer an 8GB iPhone for $729 and a 16GB phone for $849. These phones can be unlocked free of charge after six months, or for a $60 fee any time before then (including the time of purchase). So, totally unlocked iPhone 3G will be sold in Australia for $789 (the 8GB model) or $929 (16GB).Thanks to everyone who sent this in!Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Found Footage: iPhone 2.0 firmware walkthrough, iTunes 7.7 screenshots
Filed under: iPod Family, Software, Found Footage, iPhone, App Store Gizmodo has posted a video demoing the new iPhone 2.0 (build 5A345) firmware. In the video they mainly show the new features: Fetch New Data option, Parental Controls, new BCC field when you type an e-mail, and the scientific calculator. The AppStore icon was on the home screen, but wouldn't launch because it has not been activated as of yet. In addition to the video walkthrough, Gizmodo also posted 4 screen shots of iTunes 7.7. One of the screenshots reveal a "Look for iPhone & iPod touch Remotes" checkbox in the Advanced > General section of iTunes preferences -- something we had mentioned in an earlier post.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Wallpaper Clocks
Filed under: Freeware I was on the hunt today for a clock application and ran across an interesting implementation in Wallpaper Clock. Basically it's a small application that dynamically redraws your Desktop every minute, to keep your time and date, well, up-to-date. The application itself is free, but requires particular artwork files in a variety of designs. Some of these clock files are available in a free, low-quality version, while others are only available to registered users (along with the free ones in higher-quality versions). It is also possible to create your own Wallpaper Clocks with your own images.Wallpaper Clocks is a free download however there is a registration fee for subscription based access to the maker's website with artwork unavailable in the free version. Subscriptions are $8.99 for 3 months, $12.99 for 6 months, $19.99 for one year, and $29.99 for lifetime access.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Google Talk for the iPhone
Filed under: Internet Tools, iPhoneGoogle has just announced Google Talk for the iPhone (and iPod touch). You won't have to wait for the App Store to use it, since this is a web app designed for the iPhone's browser (remember when Apple wanted us to believe that web apps were just as good as fully native apps? My how times have changed).All you have to do is point your iPhone to www.google.com/talk and soon you'll be chatting away with your Gmail contacts. Since this is a web app, Google Talk for the iPhone only works when it is the active window in Mobile Safari. Close the web broswer, or switch to a different window and you'll show up as unavailable in Google Talk.[via Lifehacker]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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10.5: Quick Look files in Open and Save dialogs
I was digging through my old email archives the other day, when I stumbled on one that explained how to use Quick Look on documents in Open and Save dialogs. The trick? A free AppleScript Quick Look Droplet, provided by none other than Apple themselves. There are actually two little apps on that page -- Quick Look Droplet, and Quick Look Viewer. The first is just what you might guess it is -- drag and drop any file or files onto its icon, and you'll get a Quick Look preview of those files. The second is a miniature media player, of sorts. You can store files inside the application bundle, and those files will be shown in Quick Look when the program runs. So you could, in theory, place the desired documents in the application bundle, then distribute that bundle to customers as a demo of your work, without worry...
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Regain lost space hidden in trash on external disks
Think you emptied the trash on your external drive? Even if you did, there may be large amounts of trash still lurking on external or network drives that has not been emptied. As most folks know, the trash is segregated by user ID, and when you empty the trash, it only empties your user's trash -- even on FireWire disks. If you delete a user's account on your computer, the system won't remove the trash for that user ID on the external or network drive. This can also happen if you have ever shared a disk between two computers. Since the UIDs on one computer may not be the same as the other, trashes can be created by one computer that cannot be emptied by the other. This can even happen if your username is the same on both computers, but your UIDs (e.g. 501 an 502) are different. Thus periodically one needs to manually remove the trash like this, in Terminal: $ sudo -s $ rm -rf /Volumes/"my_external_disk"/.Trashes/* $ exit Replac...
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Listen to Bloomberg Radio via Windows Media Player
Here's how I got Bloomberg Radio working on my Mac. First, download and install both Windows Media Player for Mac OSX and Flip4Mac from this page on Microsoft's site. Then create the following file, and name it Bloomberg_Radio.asf: Live Bloomberg Radio Bloomberg Radio Bloomberg.com 2006 Bloomberg L.P. &l...
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Google Talk Comes to the iPhone
One of the notable shortcomings of the iPhone is the lack of a chat client. Oh sure, SMS looks like iChat - but we all know that you're really paying for each of those messages you're shooting off. So we could wait for Apple to open up a true chat client…or just let Google do it for us. Yesterday Google quietly launched Google Talk for the iPhone, and it rocks. Nice and quick, it follows the look of the Gmail iPhone interface and works very well. I was really impressed by the way it handles multiple chats - it has a pulldown menu at the top on the window with your contacts listed. When you're chatting with someone and you receive another chat from another contact, the pulldown turns orange and highlights the contact that sent you the new message. Very cool, very easy to use. Give it a whirl by going to www.google.com/talk on your iPhone.
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Core Animation tutorial screencasts
Filed under: Developer The Pragmatic Bookshelf has published a series of Core Animation tutorials, that are available for purchase and download. These four screencasts walk you through the process of building Xcode projects and incorporating Core Animation features into them. Each tutorial runs for about a twenty to thirty minutes and includes a live voice over by developer Bill Dudney. They take you step-by-step through the development process for several projects. Don't look for a general overview of Core Animation and the technology behind it in these videos. They take it for granted that you know the vocabulary (such as layers and timing functions) and that you understand what Core Animation should do. The videos help you to move that knowledge into Xcode. These videos are best for the self-reliant programmer who's looking for a little bit of low-cost hand-holding while getting started. Each of the four tutorials cost five dollars and are available in both full-screen and iPod-compatible resolutions.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Tales From The Command Line: Where Has My Bandwidth Gone? (iftop &Â SurplusMeter)
I believe I can safely say that the primary objective for users running OS X is to connect to the Internet to read mail, check out web sites, chat with friends, download new apps or grab/share multi-media content, etc. With bandwidth caps staring to become all the rage by the mega-providers, knowing how much you are consuming may be critical knowledge to hold back the costs/fees on your monthly bill. This post covers two of three key programs for managing bandwidth: iftop (a command-line utility) and SurplusMeter (a GUI tool). The third utility - lsof (another command-line utility) - will require a dedicated article in-and-of itself. How Much Am I Consuming? SurplusMeter is a small tool from the fine folks over at SkoobySoft with one mission: to show you how much bandwidth you are consuming with the option to enter any known caps to ensure you are not over your limit. You can download SurpluMeter directly from their site. It is a PPC binary compatible down to OS X 10.3.9. For those who want to live life on the wild side, you can grab the source code and compile it yourself. I have built an OS X 10.5 compatible Universal Binary version which you can download via this post. No matter which way you decide to go, it is important to copy the application to your local volume as it runs an agent program - which runs in the background collecting bandwidth data - that will make it difficult to remove mounted volumes if you keep it running. The main view of SurplusMeter is fairly straightforward. You can set which day to start the monthly tracking period on and specify your known bandwidth cap - which can also include upstream usage. Monitoring can be paused if you know you will be moving between networks, the collected data can be reset and you can even choose which interface to monitor via their “English” names vs OS X short device names (e.g. “Ethernet port” vs “en0“). For my example, I did a short sample of bandwidth on my AT&T 3G ExpressCard, hence the PPP modem selection. If there were hiccups during program execution or you know of other bandwidth usage on your connection not emanating from your Mac, you can add bytes to the current data collector. Similarly, you can also remove bytes if you were measuring data on an interface that moved between networks. SurplusMeter is kind enough to store its data in ~/Library/Application Support/SurplusMeter/surplusmeter_data.plist in a very human- and machine-readable format (a well-annoted Apple plist) so you can do what you like with it: In general, it is a great, special purpose utility to have around. What's Going On Here? SurplusMeter tells you that you are using bandwidth, but does not provide any further details. This is where tool number two - iftop - comes into play. You can grab a pre-built package of iftop (”interface top”) from AFP548.com or grab the source and try your hand at building it (you may need to download some support libraries). Users of various “ports” tools should be able to find iftop in one of the repositories. Where the command-line tool top provides a mechanism for determining what processes are consuming precious system resources (in a very similar fashion to the Activity Monitor application), iftop does something similar for network usage on a particular interface. You will need some more technical information to run iftop successfully. First, you will need to know which network interface you want to monitor. To find out which interfaces you have on your system, open Terminal.app and run the command: ifconfig -l My output from that shows: lo0 gif0 stf0 en0 fw0 en1 vmnet8 vmnet1 ppp0 Interface en0 generally is equivalent to “Ethernet” and en1 is usually equivalent to your AirPort card. ppp0 would refer to most modems, including 3G cards. Additional interfaces may be related to a VMware or Parallels install, your local firewall interface or other local types of network devices. With Terminal.app open, run iftop -h to see what the command line options are for the tool: Synopsis: iftop -h | [-npbBP] [-i interface] [-f filter code] [-N net/mask] -h display this message -n don't do hostname lookups -N don't convert port numbers to services -p run in promiscuous mode (show traffic between other hosts on the same network segment) -b don't display a bar graph of traffic -B Display bandwidth in bytes -i interface listen on named interface -f filter code use filter code to select packets to count (default: none, but only IP packets are counted) -F net/mask show traffic flows in/out of network -P show ports as well as hosts -m limit sets the upper limit for the bandwidth scale -c config file specifies an alternative configuration file For this example, the most useful options are “-i” to let us choose which interface to monitor and “-P” to show which ports are in use. The tool requires elevated privileges to work so you have to run the following to start your view: sudo iftop -P -i ppp0 (again, replace “ppp0” with “en0” or “en1” or whatever interface you need to monitor). You should see something similar to the following screen upon successful execution (minus the annotation): The main part of the display lists, for each pair of hosts, the rate at which data has been sent and received over the preceding 2, 10 and 40 second intervals. The direction of data flow is indicated by arrows, . So in this example, where I started iTunes just after kicking off iftop, we can see that: 166.129.237.160 (my local machine) made a series of http (web) requests to Apple servers some of Apple's servers do not resolve from IP addresses to host names the average transfer rate over 40 seconds is between 0.2 kilobytes and 9 kilobytes per second After quitting iTunes and running for a while, then letting it sit “idle” (not actively doing network activity), you can see that the pattern of usage can change dramatically. While iftop can let you see more of what is going on, it cannot tell you which applications or processes are causing the usage. You can infer quite a bit (i.e. http traffic is most likely coming from your browser - but this is not necessarily the case as shown by the last screen), but finding out core details is where lsof can be of real value and will be covered in our next installment. While I have presented a free way to monitor bandwidth usage, Guy Meyer has a set of tools - Net Monitor & Net Monitor Sidekick which do something similar but are not free (the Sidekick program is in beta which is expired so I was not able to test it). If you are using any of these or similar tools to monitor bandwidth utilization, drop a note in the comments to share your insights with TAB readers and keep an eye out for our post on lsof!
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Regarding ‘Wall-E’ and Kids
Tyler Cowen on Wall-E: Better than better than good. It is, however, not recommended for children. I have no idea why not. My four-and-a-half year-old son loved it. Rapt attention the entire time. That large stretches of the film have no dialog whatsoever does not make it difficult for children to follow. If anything, I’ve found that Jonas is much better at following stories which are told cinematically than those which are told verbally. I’d go so far as to say it’s the best film for small children that Pixar has made since Toy Story 2. The film is so good overall that it makes me wonder whether the Academy will have the balls to nominate it for Best Picture, rather than relegating it to the ridiculous and artificial “Animated” ghetto. ★
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A low cost guide to making music with your Mac, part three
Filed under: Audio, Multimedia, Tips and tricks Here we are with the long-awaited third part of my series on how to make music with your Mac. In the first installment, we looked at audio hardware; in the second installment, we discussed digital audio workstations. Today we're going to look at useful DSP (or digital signal processing) plugins and software synthesizers to help aid in your music making.Again, a disclaimer: these are only a small handful of the options open to you. There are thousands of Mac-friendly synths and plugins out there, and you can spend as much time playing with demos and tweaking presets as you can making music. Having said that, these are a few tools I've personally found useful in my quest to become a halfway-decent digital producer.More after the jump.Continue reading A low cost guide to making music with your Mac, part threePermalink | Email this | Comments
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iPhone app submission deadline: July 7th
Filed under: iPod Family, Developer, iPhone, App Store, SDK We've been receiving tips all day about an e-mail some iPhone developers got from Apple today. In the e-mail, Apple is asking developers to submit their iPhone applications to the AppStore in order to be available for the iPhone 2.0 firmware / iPhone 3G launch. The deadline? July 7th ... as in this coming Monday. World of Apple received a screenshot of the e-mail which reads, "To ensure your application can be considered for the exciting launch of the App Store, submit your application by 12 PM PDT, on July 7, 2008. We will continue to accept applications after this time, however your application may not be available until after the launch of the App Store" So, for all the iPhone developers out there: get your apps out by July 7th (especially for the Twitterrific and Super Monkey Ball folks).Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Three Weeks with Delicious Library 2
About three weeks ago, I finally upgraded to Delicious Library 2. It is definitely a slick program. The greatest addition for me was the ability to add my gadgets to my library. It just makes sense to be able to add all my electronic gear. You can add items in nine categories: books, movies, music, software, videogames, toys, gadgets, tools, and apparel. Sadly, the software Delicious Library 2 cannot be added via the lookup tool: What I don't like There are two ways to add an item to your library, through the iSight, and through a search box like the one pictured above. It uses Amazon search, and it lets you add just about anything that you can buy on Amazon. I am not sure how Shipley designed the search for Delicious Library 2, but when I tried to add my Nintendo Wii to the library, it brought up every accessory you can buy, but failed to show me the actual Nintendo Wii. I was able to find a couple Wiis with some additional accessories, but that was about it. I don't have the box anymore, so I couldn't just scan it (which is the case with most of my electronic gear). The good news is that I was able to add component cables for my Wii to my library, as well as extra Wii remotes, classic controllers, nunchucks, grip covers, and remote charging stations. There are some frustrations with searching, though. In Delicious Library 1, you could search by ISBN (which was probably because the iSight scanning did not always work). But now, in Delicious Library 2, you can't. It is very frustrating to know the ISBN but not be able to use it to search. It is probably easier to search with keywords, but sometimes the results listed are far too broad and varied for it to be that worthwhile. I wish the option to add was as simple as this: You can also publish your shelves to the web. I published mine to my iWeb site, and it looked pretty good. The only drawback is that it did not include links to Amazon, so if someone were viewing my library, and wanted one of my books, they couldn't just click on the title and get to the book. They would have to copy and paste, or just look the book up. That seems like a big oversight. What I do like Although the release notes for this version say that the algorithm for scanning with iSight is only “slightly improved” it is far better than Delicious Library 1. I scanned the same book in both, and got a much faster scan time for Delicious Library 2. I waved it all over the screen on version 1, but with version 2, I put it right in the guides, and scanned it before it was actually lined up all the way in the guides. That makes for much faster adding of items. I also tried it out with an external USB webcam, and that worked just as well. That made it very easy for taking it to my bookshelves, instead of bringing all my books to my computer. Visually, it rocks. When you add an item, a “container” fills up with colored circles that becomes your item. Your items shatter or go up in flames when you delete them, as shown below. Perhaps the best feature for the kids out there is the ability to export your library (or just selected shelves or items) to a bibliography. In college, I used EndNote for my citation needs, and if this were available, it would have been much easier. EndNote requires you to type in every single thing about your book, and only just recently came out with a very poor online search tool that doesn't get the correct info 95% of the time. Bibliographies are available in the following formats: AMA, Turabian, APA, CBE, Chicago, and MLA. For college students who do a lot of writing, it is definitely worth the $40 or $20 (for an upgrade). In conclusion, Delicious Library 2 is most beneficial in that it provides a record of most things that you own, and it does it in a fun way. It is actually exciting to feel like you are a checker at a store as you scan items into your library. I finally have the itemized list of stuff that I need to show the insurance company if anything ever happens. Everything I buy from now on will go right into the library, so I can have a record of it. This is a good program for those who want to catalog their stuff and have a record on the web (or iPod) that you can get to if you need it later. Delicious Library costs $40 for a new license and $20 for an upgrade from 1.5 at delicious-monster.com
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Mac OS Ken: 07.03.2008
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