Jul 5, 2008 Jul 7, 2008 Sunday July 6, 2008
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How can I turn a old iPhone into a Wi-Fi iPod?
July 11, 2008 is a significant date for those planning to purchase one of the hottest mobile phones available. The iPhone 3G officially goes on sale. If you are a current iPhone user who will be upgrading to the iPhone 3G you might have wondered what to do with your old iPhone. AT&T is offering an option that might appeal to old iPhone users. AT&T will allow users to use the old iPhone as a Wi-Fi iPod. You can keep it yourself, hand it over to a family member, friend, or sell it on Ebay. Since you'll be using the same number as used with your old iPhone the recipient will have to purchase another SIM card which they can purchase at a AT&T retail store. Users can use a new number or transfer an old number to the first generation iPhone. I'm currently on vacation and there is a WI-Fi hotspot about a mile away from the waterfront condo where I'm residing with AT&T's plan I would be able surf the internet and access my email thanks to the WI-Fi connection. Even if you aren't near a Wi-Fi hotspot you can still listen to music, watch movies, and take pictures. That is one of the many things I find appealing about the iPhone is that it allows me to do more than send and receive calls. It is important to note that AT&T is recommending that users should upgrade their old iPhone to v2.0 before having them deactivated in time for the July 11 release of the iPhone 3G. Apple Insider has listed steps on how to hand down your old iPod. Naturally, if you aren't planning on purchasing the iPhone 3G this won't be necessary. Don Do you any plans for your old iPhone? Lets us know in the comment section.
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Flickr Find: Macintosh on Nintendo DS
Filed under: OS, Hacks, Cult of Mac, Mods, Flickr FindWhile browsing Flickr this afternoon, we came across a shot of a Nintendo DS running Macintosh System 6 in emulation on reader Ken Fager's Flickr stream. Of course, we contacted him to ask how he did it. Here's what he had to say.First, grab a DS flash card and install MiniVMacDS onto its root directory.Once that's done, place the Mac Plus ROM into the "vmac" folder along with a System 6/7 install disk (you can make a blank disk image using Disk Utility). Finally, turn on the DS and select MiniVMacDS. It will boot the disk images. From there, install (minimal) System 6 onto the blank disk image. Ken notes that it's a bit pokey, but hey, this wasn't done for speed! Have fun if you try this for yourself. Thanks for sharing, Ken! We love it.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Ask TUAW: rEFIt with Open Firmware passwords, iCal problems, iPod without iTunes, and more
Filed under: Features, Troubleshooting, Ask TUAWIn this edition of Ask TUAW we've got questions about using an iPod without iTunes, hotkey managers, iTunes locking up, getting rid of persistent iCal calendars, Open Firmware passwords and much more.As always, your suggestions are most welcome, and questions for next week should be left in the comments. When asking a question please include which machine you're running and which version of Mac OS X, as certain answers will vary between different Macs and Tiger vs. Leopard, etc. (we'll assume you're running Leopard if you don't specify). And now, on to the questions!Continue reading Ask TUAW: rEFIt with Open Firmware passwords, iCal problems, iPod without iTunes, and moreRead | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Beefing up your Phishing net
Filed under: SecurityPhishers -- in their sinister attempts to bilk you out of your time, money, and personal information with bogus emails -- are becoming more and more clever. Luckily, with a little critical thinking and up-to-date software, you can keep yourself safe. Typically, to avoid falling victim to phishing, check the URL that the email is asking you to click. Does it look right? One popular façade for phishing attempts is PayPal, and there's a new technique that makes it look like the request is coming, securely, from paypal.com. For the technical among us, it exploits a flaw in one of PayPal's screens that allows a phisher to include a redirect URL in an address that begins with https://www.paypal.com. Sneaky. Thankfully, Firefox blocks it on the rebound. Also, emails that ask you to verify or enter account information (that you've already entered) have a high degree of poopiness about them. Reader Allan noted that because Apple is in the process of switching people to Mobile Me, some phishers are using the confusion to send people emails asking them to enter new billing information for the new service. That, of course, isn't necessary, and if you get that kind of email, you should delete it. Another good way to protect yourself is to use an up-to-date browser. Firefox includes protection against known phishing sites, and warns you about them before letting you proceed. Safari, currently, does not, but 1Password does, and it works seamlessly with Safari. Installing one of these options is especially important for parents and grandparents that may not be as familiar with these attacks as their kids. Lastly, there's a great overview at macphishingprotection.com, which notes, "Phishers win even if you make only one mistake." Truer words never spoken. Thanks, Allan, Fernando and Aviv for the heads-up!Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Talkcast reminder: 10 p.m. ET tonight!
Filed under: TUAW Business, PodcastsOur own Christina Warren will be helming the Starship Chitchat tonight, with a review of this week's top Mac topics! Tonight, we'll be talking about the slow (and unsteady) transition to Mobile Me, and the Mac OS X 10.5.4 update. And hey, did you hear there was some new product coming? I think it's this coming week. I can't remember what it is, though. Feel free also to catch up on past shows by visiting our page at Talkshoe. Listen live, tonight at 10 eastern! Follow the jump for details on how to join tonight's call. Continue reading Talkcast reminder: 10 p.m. ET tonight!Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Chris Alvanas shows how to retouch eyes in Photoshop
Layers Magazine's Chris Alvanas has posted a new tutorial on the site entitled Retouching Eyes in Photoshop. Because well-done photo retouching is imperceptible, you may not realize all the work that can go into tweaking and perfecting the details of an image. If the eyes are the window to the soul, it would behoove us to properly clean and dress those windows if our images are going to convey... [read more at MacMerc.com]
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ContextFree.js and Algorithm Ink: Making Art With Javascript
Aza Raskin: Computers programs lost something important when displaying a splash of color stopped being one line of code. As a kid, I remember being able to type “plot x,yâ€? on the Apple II to throw up a phosphorescent splotch. When the simplicity of the one-line plotter went away, so did the delight at being so effortlessly generative — in a visual way — on the computer. ContextFree.js is a stab at making it easy again. It’s like a grown up version of Logo (or at least the Turtle Graphics part of Logo). If you remember Logo, you know how cool this is. If you don’t, trust me, check this out. And as Ryan Singer points out, the UI that Raskin created for the Algorithm Ink “IDE” is quite clever, too. ★
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Mozilla Sunbird 0.8 for Mac OS X
Filed under: Software, Freeware, Open Source, Beta Beat You hate Entourage, and you're not particularly fond of iCal. You've waited endlessly for Nighthawk, Contactizer Pro is too complicated, and you want a native app instead of using Google Calendar or another web calendar. And, since you're saving money for an iPhone 3G, you don't want to spend any money on a calendar app.Maybe it's time to look at Mozilla Sunbird 0.8 for Mac OS X. It's developed by the same people who brought us Firefox and Thunderbird. It's almost identical to the Lightning calendar plugin for Thunderbird, but doesn't require that email app to run. Upon first startup, Sunbird will import events and tasks from your existing calendar application. The UI is plain and simple, probably because this is a multi-platform application (Windows, Linux, and Solaris in addition to Mac OS X) that shares a lot of code between the different flavors. Sunbird can tie into CalDAV servers such as the one in Mac OS X Server 10.5, and can subscribe to any .ics format shared calendars. In limited testing, Sunbird felt responsive in searches and was quite stable for betaware.Sunbird, of course, is free. If you are searching for a new calendar app, give it a try.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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AT&T's Odd iPhone Offer
As someone who is familiar with the coverage that surrounds the iPhone, I was puzzled by Tuesday's announcement from AT&T about a new way to buy the gadget. My first reaction: Something must be missing. Second reaction: Why would anyone pay more for the iPhone if there's no additional benefit? AT&T said it will sell an 8 gigabyte iPhone for $599 and the 16 GB version for $699. Both are offered contract-free, meaning it sells without the usual two-year service agreement. It could be worth the cost if you dislike AT&T's service and wanted to use the phone on another carrier. But you can't.
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Attention Apple Investors: Analysts You Don't Know But Should
Every Apple (AAPL) investor is conditioned to expect a wild ride during Apple earnings calls. Because no one knows what to expect, you can't put any faith in analysts' prognostications; they almost always miss, and usually to the down-side. Yet every Apple quarterly earnings conference call follows the same pattern. Apple reports great numbers, the world goes nuts, shares skyrocket; then an Apple executive will invariably make a bearish remark, the world's collective jaws drop, sparking an equally volatile selloff. It's an emotional roller coaster. After the call, the analysts run for cover, spinning into CYA mode, performing poetic revisionist interpretations of their prognostications, in an attempt save face. I'll have to admit though, Apple is tight lipped, and it must be difficult to collect and analyze all the required information. But you would think that analysts and their deep pocketed firms, with the tremendous resources and contacts at their disposal, could do a better job providing guidance to the rest of us.