Jul 31, 2008 Aug 2, 2008 Friday August 1, 2008
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Warning: Google Maps Walking directions are in Beta
Daniel Eran Dilger Okay folks, I know I need to get back to writing my essays on technology, but I had to post this because I split my sides while taking a look at Google's latest beta project: walking directions within Google Maps. Typically, Google gives you car directions that are often comical if you're really on foot, say when you pull up instructions on your iPhone. In this case however, it told me the best way to walk to San Rafael from the City would be to stroll out into the Ocean near the George Bush Sewage Treatment Plant, then hike down through the peninsula through Milpitas and then out Altamont Pass into the boonies of Stockton near I-5 before cutting through Napa Valley and climbing over the top of Mount Tam on a 241 mile journey estimated to take three days and nine hours. No wonder Americans drive everywhere. Click to enlarge! The best part: “Walking directions are in beta. Use caution when walking in unfamiliar areas.”
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Apple kills NetShare: No more iPhone-as-modem
Apple put the brakes on using the iPhone as a modem. Why?
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How would you change Apple's iPhone 3G?
Filed under: Cellphones It has technically been available for three weeks today (and a few hours in the US, but who's counting?), although we're confident quite a few of you are still waiting to actually hold your very own iPhone 3G. Still, those that have braved the excruciatingly long lines and got lucky with AT&T's apparently random Direct Fulfillment approach surely have something to say. We've already confirmed that firmware 2.0 has some serious issues that need dealt with, and aside from elaborating on those, what else would you have done differently with Apple's second handset? Would you have changed the overall design more dramatically? Finally included a user-removable battery? Used a casing material that wouldn't crack for no good reason under pressure? There's still time for your input to be heard before firmware 2.1 arrives (ahem, Apple?) -- sound off below!Permalink|Email this|Comments
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AT&T, iPhone exclusive until at least 2010
Posted by Dennis SellersApple is bound to its exclusivity deal with AT&T until at least 2010, according to USA Today.
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Black Hat talk on Apple encryption flaw canned
Posted by Dennis SellersA security researcher who was set to speak at the Black Hat hacker convention in Las Vegas next week on a previously undiscovered flaw in Apple's FileVault encryption system has canceled his talk, citing confidentiality agreements with the Cupertino computer maker, reports the Washington Post.
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AT&T iPhone exclusivity extended to 2010?
Filed under: Cellphones, WirelessApple's deal with AT&T obviously got re-done in order to get the iPhone 3G on the street for a subsidized $199, but it looks like Steve gave in on a little more than revenue-sharing when he re-upped with Ma Bell: USA Today says that AT&T's US exclusive on the iPhone has been extended for an additional year, until 2010. The extension isn't officially announced, but it's being cited in the context of a long interview with AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, who's quoted as saying things like "The iPhone has repositioned AT&T as the premier wireless brand in the world." So yeah, dude's a fan -- and with iPhone customers spending almost double on rate plans than the average AT&T customer, it's not hard to see why. Looks like our dream of glorious data plan price wars will have to wait until Android makes a splash later this year.[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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Article: iPhone Gems: Every Sudoku Game, Reviewed
If you're reading this article, you probably already know that Sudoku is a one-screen puzzle game based upon a 9-by-9 grid that's partially filled with numbers. The objective is to fill the empty spaces of the grid with single digit numbers so that the same digit does not appear twice on any horizontal or vertical line. Additionally, the same number should not appear twice in any of nine 3-by-3 mini grids on the screen. The fifth-generation…
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Apple software updates for Aug. 1
Posted by Dennis SellersWith Daylite 3.7.5, the newest version of Marketcircle's Mc productivity management software, there's no need to recreate any offline databases as there are no OpenBase or schema changes.Daylite LightSpeed Connector 1.0.1 is also improved, fixing a database connection issue.
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Clump 008: Farewell to a friend
Posted by Frank PetrieThis week we pay homage to a close friend of mine, who will be sadly missed.
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Sans Digital introduces new four-day NAS server
Posted by Dennis SellersSans Digital has introduced an US$696 compact network attached storage server that could also be used as a direct attached storage via iSCSI support. The Mac compatible MobileNAS MN4L+(B) is a four-bay NAS / DAS in a tower configuration that utilizes Intel Pentium M CPU and 512 DDR-2 memory for...
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Software tracking site iusethis adds support for iPhone apps
Posted by Dennis SellersThe software tracking web site, iusethis, has expanded its reach to iPhone users today. Members can now submit, browse and vote up iPhone applications.
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5th Annual 2008 Great Mac Mod Challenge underway
Posted by Dennis SellersMacMod has announced the start of the fifth annual “Great MacMod Challenge” sponsored by iFixit. MacMod is home to Mac users who modify their computer and software, in sometimes extreme cases.
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Apple's DNS patch coming up short
Filed under: OS, Bad Apple, SecurityThe distance between good intentions and actual results seems to be getting longer and longer. While Apple did release a security patch yesterday that included a fix to BIND for the highly publicized cache poisoning exploit -- some time after most other vendors got updates out to customers -- that fix doesn't seem to be, you know, actually working.Multiple sources have noted that Apple's DNS patch, at least on Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5 client versions, isn't implementing the key feature that's meant to block cache poisoning: port randomization on requests. While the same version of BIND running on Linux systems behaves as expected, Mac OS X machines doggedly issue DNS requests on sequential ports, making them far more vulnerable to spoofing by malicious folk.This may seem like an esoteric vulnerability, and indeed for most Mac users the more important question is whether or not your ISP or network manager has patched the primary DNS servers you rely on (you can check your DNS server status via Dan Kaminsky's tool here). The behavior of Apple on this security issue, however, is very troubling. Waiting weeks to issue a patch for a key vulnerability and lagging behind other OS vendors is bad enough; shipping that patch only to have the user community discover that it doesn't work worth a bucket of warm spit ... that's not the act of a company that claims to care deeply about the security of its customers.Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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Carmack says iPhone is "more powerful than a Nintendo DS and PSP combined"
Filed under: Cellphones, Gaming We already knew that Id Software co-founder John Carmack was on board with the iPhone to some extent, but at the now-happening QuakeCon 2008 in Dallas he's revealed just how impressed with the device he really is. According to Apple Insider, while Carmack admits that graphics memory could be a limiting factor, he describes the phone's hardware as equivalent to a Dreamcast and almost on par with a PlayStation 2 and the original Xbox. He also sees it as far superior, at least in terms of raw specs, than the two big dedicated handheld consoles out there, saying that is "more powerful than a Nintendo DS and PSP combined." Unfortuantely, he didn't have any actual games to show off, but he did at least confirm that Id has two "tentative titles" in the works, including a "conventional mobile game," and one that pushes the iPhone's graphics capabilities. Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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aTV Flash brings GUI installer, Apple TV 2.1 support
aTV Flash unlocks the Apple TV by bringing support for more video codecs and even external USB storage—as long as you aren't afraid of Unix and some Terminal scripts. A new update, however, brings a user-friendly GUI installer and a few more tricks to the table.Read More...
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reQall launches an iPhone, iPod touch 'memory aid'
Posted by Dennis SellersreQall has released a memory aid for the iPhone and iPod touch. It's available for free from the Apple App Store.
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The Eyes Have It
So little real information leaks out of Apple these days that we tech pundits tend to jump on any crumb we can get and munch it to death. That's certainly the case with this week's story about Apple possibly dumping Intel chipsets for the new MacBooks expected to be announced in September. What's funny to me is that the answer to what's REALLY happening has been in front of us all for more than a year. Here's how this mess of a story got started. On Monday, July 21st Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer dropped a bomb on those listening to Apple's quarterly conference call on earnings for Wall Street analysts. He said that gross margins for the coming quarter, and possibly beyond, would be lower for three reasons: 1) a back-to-school special; 2) a one-time charge related to a contract manufacturer, and; 3) "a future product transition that I can't discuss with you today." That's it. That's all he said. And from that sprang a zillion stories about what that future product transition could possibly be. It settled eventually on the idea that Apple might be abandoning Intel processors, later downgraded to Intel chipsets, for the new MacBooks and beyond. Of course Apple's recent purchase of PA Semi got folded in as pundits wondered if Apple was going back to PowerPCs after all. I know how these stories develop, having written more than a few of them myself over the last 20 years. You start with one fact, get the usual suspects to speculate on what that fact could mean, throw those speculations into print, then look for an official denial of the parts that are wrong. Once that denial comes through we rinse and repeat with the goal of eventually converging on something close to the truth. It's not a very elegant way to do journalism, but that's the way it happens in the tech trades, which now include everything from blogs to the New York Times. But what's REALLY happening here? Stepping back from the carnage we can see that Apple has a "product transition" coming up that will hurt margins in the near term, but Oppenheimer also said it was dramatic and would definitely HELP margins in the long term. That's all we really have to work with from Apple, but it is really quite a bit if you parse the data carefully. First is the product transition, which quite specifically DOESN'T mean a new product. If Apple was announcing something completely new as they did last year with the iPhone and Apple TV, then Oppenheimer would have referred to it as a new product. As CFO he has fiduciary and legal responsibilities that could land the guy in hot water with the SEC, so language on these calls is important and never by chance. Second is the margin hit that will go away, which smart readers right away saw as a change of chips, because they start expensive and become very cheap over time. By making an aggressive semiconductor move Apple would be trading profit margins for technical market advantage knowing that in a few months the new chip process would come down and margins could return to normal. THAT's why all the smart money went immediately to speculating about Intel, then backed off somewhat as official denials began filtering through back channels from Cupertino and Santa Clara. As of today people are just left scratching their heads. Apple isn't changing CPU families and evidently they also aren't dumping Intel chipsets for those of Nvidia. But SOMETHING is happening because Peter Oppenheimer gets no pleasure predicting lower margins that he knew would drive down Apple's share price, if only temporarily. So now the pundits are wasting even more packets wondering what Apple is planning, at the same time generally admitting that they (the pundits) don't really have a clue. Regular readers of this column may well have an idea what's up, because I wrote about it more than a year ago. Before I drop my own bomb, though, I should say that I have no new information and what I am about to predict is based solely on my earlier reporting. Here's what I THINK Apple is about to do. I reported more than a year ago and repeated in this year's predictions that Apple would be adding H.264 hardware support to its entire line of computers. The chip they are adding comes from NTT in Japan and was developed in cooperation with Japanese broadcaster NHK. The chips began sampling a year ago and should now be available in volume, though Apple may be paying as much as $50 each for early production. This would be a major blow to gross margins because, unlike all the speculation covered above, this wouldn't be a matter of replacing one chip with another but of adding a new chip to the mix. That'll be an extra $50, thank you, with no savings from eliminating other parts. The fun part is figuring how this all fits into Apple's strategy as not just a maker of computers but also as a seller and distributor of entertainment content. The NTT chip is not just an H.264 decoder, it encodes, too, which is what makes it so special. The last I heard NHK was claiming the chip could compress a 1080p video and audio stream into four megabits per second, down from the 20 megabits normally required. If we assume Apple will apply the same kind of wink-wink, nudge-nudge transcoding to 1080p that they've already applied to 720p in the Apple TV, then it is within reason to expect they'll claim to distribute 1080p over iTunes in two megabits per second. As the dominant technology platform in television and movies today, it makes good sense for Apple to put this H.264 hardware capability into the Mac Pro line, and maybe even into the MacBook Pros for professional use, but darned if I can immediately see why such powerful and expensive compression capability is required in a MacBook, iMac, or Mac Mini, yet I was told long ago that the chips would be applied "across the entire line." We'll see. Of course this is all about taking command of the 1080p video market. Apple's strategy with iTunes will continue to evolve, but for the moment having a unique real-time 1080p capability will suck a lot of early adopters back into the Apple stores and give Apple's emerging content competitors like Netflix something new to worry about. When Apple marketers sit down to talk about the competition they discuss Netflix and MAYBE TiVo, but that's it. Hulu is something iTunes could emulate overnight so it doesn't matter and none of the other video distribution channels are seen as having the potential to achieve critical mass. What really excites me as a content creator is the amazing potential of real-time HD. Video and games are by far the greatest consumers of cycles on modern PCs. By embracing a dedicated H.264 chip THAT IT MAY WELL HAVE EXCLUSIVELY FOR A YEAR OR MORE, Apple is taking an out-of-the-box approach that will frustrate its competitors in both software and hardware. While the H.264 chips are expensive, they'll enable Apple to save money elsewhere by having slower computers that run faster video. Though it is doubtful that many will use it, you can be sure Apple will trumpet the ability to support 720p video in iChat. So why am I the only one writing this? It's because I could be wrong, of course. But I don't think so. I'll just have to take a chance and see.
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NetShare is Back
NetShare is back in the iTunes App Store after being pulled by Apple for unknown reasons. If you're interested in tethering your MacBook to your iPhone and you're certain you won't run afoul of your carrier, you might want to check it out here.
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Friday afternoon Apple links, August 1 edition
This week's Apple links make a triumphant return with a Steve Jobs opening line generator, news about QuickMail, Rogers' commitment to buying tons of iPhones, the UK getting weekly iTunes rental specials, some tips on transferring voicemail to your computer, a game about pirates (yarrr!), and Nickelodeon classics on iTunes.Read More...
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Netshare iPhone tethering app reappears in the App Store
Filed under: Cellphones Well, who knows what's going on here, but Nullriver's Netshare iPhone tethering app has made a reappearance for download by direct link only in the App Store, after getting unceremoniously yanked last night. It won't show up in searches, but you can still get it if you know the link -- that's a bit odd. Nullriver told Macrumors that it doesn't believe the SOCKS proxy violates any of the App Store SDK restrictions, and that while AT&T has tethering restrictions for its 3G network, other carriers around the world don't, making the app legit in its opinion. Looks like Apple's agreed -- for now. We did a quick hands-on video last night, check it out after the break.Continue reading Netshare iPhone tethering app reappears in the App StoreRead|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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Where have you gone, George Ou? A nation turns its lonely eyes to you.
File Vault flaw fling fizzles. Fruit-themed firm at fault.
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Where have you gone, George Ou? A nation turns its lonely eyes to you.
File Vault flaw fling fizzles. Fruit-themed firm at fault.
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News: Apple explains Works With iPhone 3G re-certification
Following announcements this week that certain iPhone accessory manufacturers had received iPhone 3G certification for previously released accessories under Apple's Works With iPhone program, iLounge contacted Apple to clarify the reasons that past iPhone accessories might need to be re-certified for use with the new handset. Apple spokesman Simon Pope explained that re-certification has occured on some products “because of the addition…
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Apple Gazette Daily 319 - Customs can check your iPod and Mac for any reason, Security update and more!
podcast sponsor link:Click Here to check out Audible! Today's Show: Customs can check your iPod and Mac for any reason, Security update and more! You can subscribe via iTunes, or by RSS feed, or… you can listen to the episode right here: In addition to that, you can also download the Apple Gazette Daily Widget and listen to every episode of the show right on your Dashboard. Click Here to download.
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★ iPhone Calendar Syncing
With the 1.0 version of iPhone OS, calendar syncing between the Calendar app on the phone and iCal on your Mac worked like this: Everything went through iTunes. iTunes listed each of your iCal calendars, and you could choose which ones to sync to the iPhone. You had to choose one calendar as your main one; any events created on the iPhone would go to this calendar. The biggest downside with this system was the obvious one: that syncing only occurred when you tethered your iPhone to your Mac and synced with iTunes. I, for one, am not a frequent iTunes syncer, so my desktop and iPhone calendars frequently were, well, out of sync. The other problem with iPhone 1.0 calendar syncing was the lack of support for multiple calendars. Because you couldn’t create events on non-main calendars from the iPhone, it was really more like syncing with just one iCal calendar, plus one-way merging from as many other calendars as you wanted. Nor was there per-calendar color-coding on the iPhone — all events from all synced iCal calendars were effectively merged into one iPhone calendar. iPhone OS 2.0, along with iTunes 7.7 and MobileMe, changes all of this. The biggest problem with iPhone 1.0 calendaring — that syncing only happened when physically tethered to your Mac — requires MobileMe; more on that in a moment. The multi-calendar shortcomings, however, were ostensibly addressed, as well. The iPhone OS 2.0 Calendar app now fully supports multiple calendars. There’s a new root-level screen in the app listing all calendars; you can choose to view events from all calendars (which view corresponds to the only view available in the old iPhone 1.0 Calendar app), or only those from any single calendar. New events created on the iPhone can be assigned to any writable calendar, and each calendar gets it own unique color. But, inexplicably, the colors assigned to the calendars on your iPhone do not correspond to the colors you’ve chosen for those same calendars in iCal, and there’s no apparent way to change the colors of calendars on the iPhone. So if you’ve got three calendars in iCal, say, Home/Work/Play, which are assigned the colors green/blue/orange, respectively, those same three calendars, when synced to your iPhone, may be assigned the colors red/orange/blue. It seems obvious that the colors should carry over to the iPhone from iCal — but if it’s a bug, it wasn’t fixed in iTunes 7.7.1. MobileMe Giveth, MobileMe Taketh Away MobileMe syncing and iTunes syncing are mutually exclusive. If you turn on MobileMe syncing for calendars on your iPhone (Settings → Mail, Contacts, Calendars → Your MobileMe Account), iTunes no longer offers calendar syncing options when you tether your iPhone. The same goes for contacts. The fundamentals of using MobileMe for over-the-air iPhone calendar (and contact) syncing have worked nearly flawlessly for me: create an event on my Mac or iPhone, and a few minutes later it appears on the other. (That Mac OS X only syncs iCal events and Address Book contact entries every 15 minutes doesn’t strike me as much of a hindrance.) And, in contrast with using iTunes for calendar syncing, the colors you associate with calendars in iCal are accurately mirrored on the iPhone. So, using MobileMe solves both of my significant complaints regarding calendaring syncing with iPhone OS 1.0: events sync over the air, and it provides full support for multiple calendars. And unlike with iTunes syncing, it correctly syncs calendar colors from iCal. That’s great. Too bad MobileMe introduces several new calendar syncing shortcomings. The first is that MobileMe syncing is all-or-nothing. If you turn it on, all of your iCal calendars sync to both me.com and your iPhone. With iTunes syncing, you could — and still can — pick and choose which calendars to sync. I took advantage of this by creating a calendar on my Mac called, simply, “Mac Reminders”. I used this calendar for events which have alarms that I only want to appear on my Mac, not on my iPhone. With MobileMe, that’s not possible. Since all your calendars sync to MobileMe, every event you create with an alarm message will appear as an alert on both your Mac and iPhone. A useful feature, gone, and now I’m badgered with reminders popping up in two places at once on my office desk. The other problem is that you can’t sync read-only subscription calendars to your iPhone. Things like holidays, sports schedules, movie releases — Apple publishes an entire directory of them. The same goes for calendars published to the Internet from someone else using iCal. With iTunes syncing, you can include these read-only calendars on your iPhone. With MobileMe syncing, you cannot. I thought about using the second limitation (subscription calendars not showing up on the iPhone) to work around the first (no way to set up a calendar with reminders that only appear on your Mac). My idea was that I could create a calendar online using, say, Google Calendar or Backpack, subscribe to the ICS feed for that calendar in iCal on my Mac, and, since subscribed-to calendars don’t sync to MobileMe, I could use that calendar for any reminders I only want to see on my Mac. But, alas, I haven’t been able to figure out a way to do this — it doesn’t seem like events in subscribed-to calendars can trigger alarms in iCal. (If I’m wrong, please let me know.) One obvious solution would be an iCal update that lets you specify on a per-calendar basis which calendars should be synced to MobileMe. I think on-by-default would be fine, but somehow you should be able to create a calendar in iCal that doesn’t sync to MobileMe. But given Apple’s traditional schedule for adding new features of any significance, it seems unlikely that an iCal update like this would appear before Snow Leopard. This lack of syncing specificity also applies to Address Book contacts. With tethered iTunes syncing, you can choose to sync only specific groups in Address Book. With MobileMe, contact syncing, as with calendars, is all or nothing. Whither the “digital hub”? Much has been made over the fact that iTunes long ago outgrew its name, but the role it plays is central to the success of both Apple’s digital media and handheld device businesses. No, syncing calendars and contacts and email accounts to an iPhone doesn’t have anything to do with “tunes”. But that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. iTunes serves an essential role, that of the hub — one obvious place to go to manage everything that syncs to your iPod or iPhone. The me.com MobileMe web site, perhaps, could serve as a hub. It does serve as the middleman for data — events and contacts never sync directly between your iPhone and computer — but as it stands today it offers no control over which calendars and contacts sync where. The MobileMe system preference pane could serve this purpose; right now, the only signficant change in this panel from its previous .Mac incarnation is the logo. Rather than a single checkbox for “Calendars”, it could offer one for each calendar. Or, perhaps the best option of all would be for iTunes to serve as the hub — one central place to manage all syncing, whether through USB or through the air. But as it stands today, with MobileMe syncing, there is no hub.
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The Numbers Game
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Software, Freeware, iPhone, App StoreIt's a week of superlatives for Apple content providers!Tapulous announced that their free game for iPhone 2.0 / iPod touch, Tap Tap Revenge (click opens iTunes) should reach the one million download mark sometime this weekend. Tap Tap Revenge joins Facebook in the million-download club, with Facebook being the first app to reach these lofty heights last week. A visit to the Tapulous website shows a counter ticking off the downloads (less than five thousand to go as of 10:42 AM ET today). Tap Tap Revenge uses soundtrack music by indie artists and over 2.5 million song downloads have been counted so far. Tapulous is now approaching the major labels on a "Pro" version of the game that would feature music by top stars.On Wednesday, Walt Disney Co. announced that they have sold over 5 million movies to viewers through the iTunes Store since the company started offering their releases online. While Disney CEO and President Rob Iger noted that although the company doesn't achieve the same margin on online sales as they do through traditional channels, it's the increase in online consumption of movies that the company is focusing on.[Disney info via Marketwatch]Read|Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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What if Apple stopped issuing DRM keys?
Sure, it's highly unlikely now, but what about 5 or 10 years from now? The fact is, consumers of DRM-laden music are at the mercy of whoever holds their encryption keys.
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Third annual C4 developer conference open for registration
Registration is now open for the highly anticipated C4[2] developer conference taking place in early September. Mac developers, start your engines. Read More...
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iPhone Web Tethering Tool Gets Short Shelf Life at App Store
An iPhone application that would let the iPhone act as a computer modem was shot down by Apple shortly after its launch. It was only available for a few minutes on the Apple App Store before it disappeared, but it was there was long enough to be noticed. The application, NetShare by Nullriver Software, went on sale on iTunes Thursday night for $9.99. Traces of the application lingered after it was taken down, and users searching frantically for it saw this cryptic message: "The item you tried to buy is no longer available."
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Black Hat talk on Apple encryption canceled
Researcher signed confidentiality agreements with Apple, preventing him from speaking on the topic or discussing the matter further.
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Blogging From Yahoo's Anticlimactic Shareholder Meeting
With Carl Icahn's proxy fight for control of Yahoo's board ending in a settlement, Yahoo's shareholder meeting Friday is an anticlimax.
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Quark releases QuarkXPress 8
Filed under: Software, Graphic Design Love it or hate it (with the burning fire of a million angry suns), Quark yesterday released QuarkXPress 8, which features new tools for developing for the web, workspace enhancements, and refinements to tools to finally bring it into the 20th century. Steve Sande mentioned back in May that it was coming, and now it's finally here. Quark 8, the William Shatner of page layout software (old, bloated, sweaty, and desperate to stay relevant), allows you to create content for the web using HTML and Flash without writing any code. This has been a feature of Quark since QuarkImmedia and Quark Interactive Designer, but now appears to be fully rolled into QuarkXPress, to the abject horror of web designers everywhere. Also, a new feature: A measurements palette. That's right, it's 2008, and they're adding a measurements palette. Also: east-Asian language support and hanging punctuation. Wow. Well done, Quark. I've been using QuarkXPress since version 3, and having very briefly tried the new version, it's a little depressing to see them keep trying to reclaim their glory years. Small design shops, freelancers, and many printers have largely moved to InDesign for their page layout software. Yes, Quark 8 is light-years ahead of where they were, but still light-years behind where they need to be. Quark makes its money on giant-scale installations at newspapers and magazines, so we'll see how quickly their enterprise customers adopt this new version. My guess: not very, as many printers I've dealt with overseas, especially in Asia, are still using QuarkXPress 6. A 60-day trial is available, and is a whopping 517MB to download. It requires Mac OS X 10.4 and a G5 processor or higher. New licenses are $800, and upgrades are a scant $300. Discounts are available for education and non-profit customers, too. Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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Bloomberg
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Rumor Mill: Nvidia To Exit Chipsets
Nvidia (NVDA) is planning to exit the chipset business, according to DigiTimes. The story is attributed to “sources close to the situation at one of Taiwan's top motherboard makers.” Update: But Lehman analyst Tim Luke writes this morning that his checks with Nvidia management in both the U.S. and Taiwan finds that the company remains committed to staying in the chipset business, which is 17%-18% of Nvidia's revenues. The DigiTimes story asserted that Nvidia called a meeting earlier this week with its motherboard partners to gauge support for its countinuing to develop chipsets in the future and was met with “silence.” DigiTimes said Nvidia will transfer its chipset team to work on GPU projects. Motherboard makers have canceled high-end motherboard projects based on the nForce 7-series chipset, Digitimes reports.
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News: NetShare app re-appears on iTunes Store
NetShare, a new iPhone application for sharing your phone's cellular internet connection over Wi-Fi, has reappeared on the App Store following its removal last evening. It is unclear if Apple has decided to let sales of the application proceed, or if this is simply a brief reappearance due to a glitch. NetShare is available through the App Store via this direct link and sells for $9.99. [via Waxy] ...
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HoudahSpot 2
My thanks to Houdah Software for sponsoring this week’s DF RSS feed. HoudahSpot 2.2 is a terrific search utility for Mac OS X. It uses Spotlight for the back-end, but provides its own interface for queries and results, which interface is better than Mac OS X’s built-in Spotlight interface in every single way. Complex queries are easier to build and more precise. Simple queries, using HoudahSpot’s new “Blitz Search” feature, feel much faster than with the Spotlight menu item, because HoudahSpot doesn’t mimic Apple’s asinine “start trying to show results after you’ve typed a single character” behavior. Check out Houdah’s screencasts for more info on how it works. HoudahSpot costs €15 (US$23 at this moment), but DF readers can save 20 percent using the coupon code “DF2008”. ★
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Security Update 2008-05 : DNS Flaw Finally Fixed
Apple released Security Update 2008-05 which contains fixes for: an Open Scripting Architecture (CVE-2008-2830) privilege elevation issue [10.4/10.5 Workstation & Server] a filename handling issue in CarbonCore (CVE-2008-2320) which may lead to an application Denial of Service (DoS) or arbitrary code execution [10.4/10.5 Workstation & Server] a web-exploitable CoreGraphics issue (CVE-2008-2321) that could lead to application DoS or arbitrary code execution [10.4/10.5 Workstation & Server] another CoreGraphics issue (CVE-2008-2322) with PDF rendering, leading to application DoS or arbitrary code execution [10.4/10/5 Workstation & Server] an issue with DataDetectors (CVE-2008-2323) where maliciously crafted content could lead to an application DoS [10.5 Workstation & Server] a really cool permissions issue with Disk Utility (CVE-2008-2324) that would have allowed local users to act with system privileges [10.4 Workstation & Server] an issue with OpenLDAP (CVE-2008-2952) where an attacker could have created an application DoS [10.4/10.5 Workstation & Server] another DoS potential in OpenSSL (CVE-2007-5135) if maliciously crafted bad packets are processed [10.4/10.5 Workstation & Server] five PHP 5 fixes [10.5 Workstation & Server] a QuickLook issue with Microsoft Office documents (CVE-2008-2325) causing either an application DoS or arbitrary code execution [10.5 Workstation & Server] two rsync vulnerabilities that may result in data access outside the module root [10.4/105 Workstation & Server] The “big daddy” of this update is a fix for the DNS cache poisoning problem that has been in the Apple and general tech & security news recently. This is a pretty severe issue as DNS is the backbone of how systems & application get IP addresses from host names (so they know where to send you on the Intenet), and the ability to corrupt those databases means you really cannot trust where your network packets are going. Apple is the last major vendor to release a fix for this flaw and rightfully deserves some flack for it since they could have deployed the patch on July 8th with the majority of the other vendors, but chose to wait until this update bundle was ready to release. OS X Server is the most likely candidate for actually running BIND (the process that manages DNS on a system) and you need to patch IMMEDIATELY if you are using it. It takes a bit of work to do this on plain-old Mac OS X, but you should run the update as soon as possible as well (especially for some of the other fixes). A gaping hole still exists in OS X 10.3 and below you will need to do a bit of work (download, compile & install the package from the ISC by hand) if you are still running those systems and hosting DNS . While supporting older operating system releases presents a real challenge to companies like Apple & Microsoft, it is not unreasonable to expect there to be a decent number of 10.3 systems in the wild that need tending to and Apple should have done more to ensure coverage for those installations (or at least have provided a series of steps one could take to fix the issue). Apple clearly dropped the ball here and has called into question their true commitment to security on their OS X platform or at least their ability to react quickly given all of the efforts they have in play. One also needs to remember that a version of OS X runs on the iPhone, iPhone 3G and iPod Touch and it is unclear whether the issues with CoreGraphics and DataDetectors exist on those platforms as well. It is much more difficult to both issue firmware updates and ensure decent update coverage with those mobile devices and Apple may need to come up with a way to deploy critical security fixes over-the-air directly to them rather than force consumers to do a full sync/update to remain secure. The security update should show up in Software Update and is also available via direct download from Apple. Let TAB readers know your take on how Apple handled this situation by dropping a note in the comments!
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Apple's quality dwindling: My MacBook Pro sob story
Filed under: Retail, Bad Apple, Apple, Macbook Pro When faced with the dilemma of upgrading my iBook G4 in June, I started looking for a replacement that would have the same performance as my Intel iMac. I decided upon getting a MacBook Pro 15". With money in hand, I eagerly clicked the "buy now" button on Apple's website. Little did I know that I would be trading in my MacBook Pro more than 6 times over the next 2 months. I received my first MacBook Pro, and it was beautiful. I loved everything about it. However, after 2 weeks of use, I started noticing the screen striping symptom that others before me have noted. This problem usually occurred after charging the computer from a half-filled battery and unplugging the MagSafe power cable. I didn't think anything of this problem, since it only happened once or twice. After another week of use, the striping problem started becoming an everyday part of charging the computer. I called Apple and even emailed them the picture that you see above (minus the additional note) -- they did nothing and said it was a "software glitch."The first MacBook Pro did have another problem: When I went to check my email one day, every program would crash repeatedly. I immediately ran the Apple hardware test (AHT) to find out what was going on. As any unlucky person (me) would have it, the memory sticks were dead. I called AppleCare, told them all of the problems I was having and then told them about the AHT results. They set up a replacement order since I was having hardware problems within the first month of ownership. Continue reading to learn more about my MacBook Pro woes.Continue reading Apple's quality dwindling: My MacBook Pro sob storyRead|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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Article: Ask iLounge 8-1-08
This week's Ask iLounge topics: iPhone Edition: Switching between apps, Car charging accessories, Activating older iPhone models, Sending MMS, App Store in wrong language, Excel and A2DP support
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NetShare MIA from App Store
Source: Mac-Addict read more
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Nullriver NetShare
This story is downright bizarre. Nullriver — the company that spearheaded the Installer.app jailbreak installer project — created an App Store app called NetShare, which enables an iPhone to share its EDGE or 3G Internet connection with a Mac or PC via Wi-Fi. That seems like a crazy app to build, given that there’d seemingly be no chance that Apple would accept it. But Apple did accept it, and it appeared on the App Store yesterday, selling for $10, and it apparently works as advertised. Soon thereafter, though, NetShare disappeared from the store. Assuming that Apple does not wish to allow network tethering, it seems crazy that this app got through in the first place — the name alone — let alone the product description, or the fact that it came from the creators of Installer.app — makes it very clear what it does. ★
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Inside iPhone 2.0: iPhone 3G vs. other smartphones
As detailed in the previous segment introducing its hardware features, the second generation iPhone 3G catches up with two of the largest competitive features offered by other higher-end smartphones: faster 3G network access and GPS. Here's a look at how Apple's smartphone compares in other areas, as well as how it stacks up against the original iPhone. Continues: Inside iPhone 2.0: iPhone 3G vs. other smartphones
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Latest Apple Security patch addresses DNS flaw, other issues
Apple has released a Security Update that patches a serious flaw in BIND, the open source software that acts as a DNS server for most Unix-based OSes. Several other security issues are addressed as well.Read More...
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Laptops can be confiscated and searched at US border without cause says report
Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds, Laptops, Portable Audio, Portable Video, Storage In further evidence of our rapidly eroding civil liberties, the Department of Homeland Security disclosed today that US Customs and Border Protection and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement have the right to confiscate and search a traveler's laptop or other electronic device without any suspicion of wrongdoing. The rules -- which we reported on in February -- allow for searches of hard drives, flash drives, cellphones, iPods, pagers, and video or audio tapes, and specify that the agencies can "detain" belongings for a "reasonable period of time," (i.e., as long as they please). Additionally, the DHS can share the data found with other government agencies or private entities for translation, decryption, or (astoundingly vague) "other reasons." The DHS says the policies apply to anyone entering the country -- including US citizens -- and claim the measures are necessary to prevent terrorism. In other news, Big Brother issued a statement today guaranteeing a bonus for turning over family members suspected of crimethink to the Thought Police.[Via Switched]Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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Mac 101: Running the Apple Hardware Test software
Filed under: Hardware, Mac 101Is your Mac acting funny? If so, you can use the install disks that came with your machine to test your hardware. To use Apple's Hardware Test (AHT), insert install disk #1 and reboot your Mac while holding down the "d" key on the keyboard (Intel machines only). The AHT software will load and ask for your language -- choose your correct language and click the arrow. From the main menu you can click the "Hardware-Tests" tab. Two tests are available: standard and extended. The standard hardware test will allow you to do a quick, 1-3 minute test of the memory and logic board, while the extended test will run an hour-long test of your system. You can get to the extended test by clicking either a button or check box (this depends on your AHT software version).Want to see more tips and tricks like this? Check out TUAW's Mac 101 section.Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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News: iPodweek, iLounge's weekly newsletter, coming later today
The latest edition of iPodweek, our weekly newsletter covering all things iPod, iTunes, iPhone, and Apple TV, is coming later today. iPodweek is a weekly summary of the best iPod news, reviews, and feature articles we’ve published, and it also features giveaways and iPod accessory discount offers from various companies. There’s still plenty of time to sign up and receive this week’s edition — just use the simple form below to submit your…
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News: iTunes/iPhone Problem poll ends, MobileMe poll begins
With over 3,100 votes from iLounge readers, our latest iLounge poll — “Are you having stability problems with iTunes 7.7, iPhone OS 2.0, or Apple TV 2.1” — has ended. Readers were given choices between issues with one, all three, or combinations of two of the products, along with an option to say that everything was running smoothly. Over 60% of readers reported problems with at least one of the recent software releases, with…
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Apple finally patches dangerous DNS flaw
Posted by Dave MertenApple has at last issued a patch for the DNS (Domain Name System) flaw considered one of the most dangerous vulnerabilities ever to affect the Internet. Apple has posted a security advisory saying that the patch will fix Apple's implementation of the Berkeley Internet Name Domain (BIND) DNS server in...
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Ultimate Matrix Collection to have digital copy for iPod
Posted by Dennis SellersWarner Brothers will release the Ultimate Matrix Collection on Oct. 14 in Blu-ray. This seven-disc collection contains the complete Matrix trilogy in high definition video and lossless high definition 5.1 audio (Dolby TrueHD).
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Stracka.com introduces mobile live golf scoring for iPhone
Posted by Dennis SellersStracka, a golf social network, is giving golfers the ability to have a live leader board just like the pros. Golfers can now post their scores and statistics while playing and have their friends, family, and competitors watch their progress live on the Internet.
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Pro-privacy initiatives are getting out of hand
Featured links from the CNET Blog Network Pro-privacy initiatives are getting out of hand--Don Reisinger is taking a stand on privacy. Will you? Apple, Microsoft, and PHP headline IBM's list of most vulnerable software--As the world moves online, so do security exploits. Here's a list of the most vulnerable products and vendors out there. Former iRobot employees cultivate new idea--Harvest Automation's agricultural robots could help growers get organized and save on manual labor costs.
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MobileFamilyTree grows for the iPhone, iPod touch
Posted by Dennis SellersSynium Software has released MobileFamilyTree, a companion application for MacFamilyTree, the Mac genealogy solution from Synium Software. MobileFamilyTree syncs your genealogy info onto any iPhone or iPod touch.
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Proporta releases two new MacBook Air cases
Posted by Dennis SellersProporta has released two cases for the MacBook Air. The Profile Case (shown) is a snap-on, protective hard shell that costs approximately US$128.
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Apple Security fix includes BIND update
Filed under: Software Update, SecurityYesterday, shortly after I read TidBITS' post on securing the DNS flaw that Apple had ignored for a while, Apple released a security fix which finally took care of the situation. This comes 3 weeks after the security industry began taking matters into their own hands. This fix does overwrite the files updated in the TidBITs post on manually correcting the issue, mentioned above. In Apple's notes on the update, they mention fixes for: Open Scripting Architecture, which addresses the ARDAgent issue which allowed Trojan Horses and non-administrator users to gain root access The aforementioned BIND issue which allowed for DNS poisoning (allowing malicious websites to forge their identity) A CarbonCore stack buffer overflow which allowed for arbitrary code execution A CoreGraphics memory corruption issue and a CoreGraphics PDF weakness, both allowing for arbitrary code execution A Data Detectors issue which could be exploited for [DOS](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denial-of-service_attack) attacks A Repair Permissions/emacs exploit in Disk Utility An LDAP weakness An OpenSSL weakness Multiple PHP vulnerabilities A flaw in QuickLook's handling of maliciously crafted Microsoft Office files An issue with rsync's handling of symbolic links Some of those had been reported, some I hadn't heard about previously, but I'm certainly feeling more secure this morning. [via Macworld]Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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O'Reilly Media releases 'The Productive Programmer'
Posted by Dave MertenAnyone who develops software for a living needs a proven way to produce it better, faster, and cheaper. The Productive Programmer by master developer Neal Ford offers critical timesaving and productivity tools that you can adopt right away, no matter what platform you use. Ford not only offers advice on...
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News: Some iTunes users locked out of accounts, downloads
A number of iTunes users, including at least one iLounge editor, are experiencing difficulties logging into, and downloading items from, the iTunes Store. Two separate error codes, error -4 and error 5002, have been associated with the issue, and may be a sign that users have been locked out of their iTunes accounts. Several users on Apple's discussion boards believed that the problem was related to a change to the country in which they were…
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iPhone market share jumps in July
Web metrics firm Net Applications showed a big jump in iPhone usage in July, but Mac OS X and Safari were flat.Read More...
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What happened to NetShare?
Filed under: iPhone, App StoreIt was there. And now it's... gone. What happened to iPhone 3G tethering app NetShare?For a while it was live on the App Store, for a meagre ten bucks. Then it vanished. And now, it seems to have vanished from Nullriver's web site, too. Their news page has no mention of NetShare.This smells of lawyers. NetShare was designed to let you share your iPhone's connectivity with your computer. Wireless freedom for all. And quite possibly something the telephony service providers in various countries would be alarmed to see on offer in the App Store, ten bucks or no. But wait -- the App Store is vetted, isn't it? Something like this couldn't just creep in through the ventilation shafts. This couldn't just be a ghastly mistake, could it?You can't make software just disappear from everywhere. There must be some TUAW readers who managed to get hold of a copy before it disappeared. What do you make of it? Is it working?For the record, we have asked NullRiver for comment, but not heard back from them yet. As soon as we do, we'll add an update.Thanks to Zoli + everyone who sent this in.Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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Control QuickTime like Final Cut Pro
QuickTime 7.5 finally added feature that all Final Cut Pro (FCP) users will enjoy: JKL transport controls. Just like in FCP, the J, K, and L keys control the playback of your video: J is backward, K is stop, and L is forward. Tapping the J or L keys multiple times increases the speed of playback. Holding J+K or K+L plays back in slow motion.
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Organize fonts using Font Book
I had a large folder of fonts. They were not organized in any way; some had been renamed, and there were a lot of duplicates. I created a new library in Font Book (File » New Library) and dropped the folder into the new library. Using a Library leaves the fonts in place instead of copying them to one of the fonts folders. Now that I had them in Font Book, I could remove all the duplicates by selecting all the fonts with dots by their name and choosing, File » Remove “Font name." Things were looking better, but I wanted to install these fonts on another computer. So I exported them by using Edit » Select All, then File » Export. To my surprise, Font Book created subfolders by font name for every font. Nice and organized, free from duplicates. As a final check, I ran File » Validate File and chose my new 'Exported Fonts' folder. That found a couple more issues with some suitcases that I fixed by following ...
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10.5: Toggle Spaces on and off via AppleScript
I use a big external monitor at work, and carry my MacBook around. I've found that Spaces is not much needed when I have two monitors rather than one. However, bringing up Spaces System Preferences panel just to toggle Spaces on and off is a pain. So I wrote a small AppleScript that toggels Spaces on and off: if (do shell script "defaults read com.apple.dock workspaces") is equal to "1" then do shell script "defaults write com.apple.dock workspaces -bool no;killall Dock" say "Space turned off" else do shell script "defaults write com.apple.dock workspaces -bool yes;killall Dock" say "Space turned on" end if
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Trigger Skype video callback via AppleScript
The following Applescript code makes Skype start a call, waits 60 seconds for reply, and when a reply is received, it will start video sending (there's no need for Skyp's auto-send-video option to be on). You can start this script in many ways: Use Mail rules configured to start the script if subject or content matches some rules you decide (the parameters here are fake, do not try this on my email). Go to Mail Preferences, select Rules, create a new rule, choose the conditions you want to trigger the call, and under 'Perform the following action,' select 'Run AppleScript' and find your saved script. Insert some code in a PHP script -- something like (untested code): . In this way, a web page/link can start video sending. Instead of PHP, you may call a shell script directly via the web. Schedule a call with iCal. Create an event, and under Alarm, choose "Run script." Use as a ...
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Virgin unveils generous iPhone 3G plans in Australia
Posted by Dave MertenThe iPhone 3G goes on sale at Virgin stores around Australia today, offering the country's most generous iPhone data allowance at 5GB.Virgin is selling Apple's 8GB iPhone 3G for $0 upfront on a $70 monthly plan, which includes $520 worth of calls and 1GB of data.
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Feral to bring Sid Meier's Pirates! to the Mac
Filed under: GamingSid Meier's Pirates! was one of my favorite games of all time. Another legendary game from the mastermind behind Civilization, it first came out for the C64 way back in 1987 (with ports to both the Apple II and Mac). Then in 2004, it was remade for the PC and later ported to the (original) Xbox and PSP. Now Feral Interactive is finally bringing out an OS X version of Pirates!. The open-world (better yet, open seas!) gameplay is relatively simple, but addictive. There's an overall quest to exact revenge against a dastardly villain, which is advanced by various sub-quests, piracy on the high seas (of course!), trading goods, searching for buried treasure, and wooing Governors' daughters.Sid Meier's Pirates! for Mac is available for pre-order at $30. It's expected to ship on August 29th.[via Macworld UK]Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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Apple releases first Mac OS X 10.5.5 build, with one caveat
Apple has seeded the first test build of the upcoming Mac OS X 10.5.5 update to developers, but warned them not to install the update on Macs with Intel integrated graphics. Those who can install it will find improvements to a number of components, as well as many bug fixes.Read More...
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O'Reilly Media releases 'Intellectual Property and Open Source'
Posted by Dave MertenOnce a term prized mostly by insomniacs for its soporific value, intellectual property—and how the law views it—is now central to the job of anyone working in IT. “People's attitudes about intellectual property are changing,” says open source lawyer Van Lindberg. Author of the newly released Intellectual Property and Open...
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iPhone 3G tethering app (NetShare) pulled by Apple
Posted by Dave MertenNullriver, Inc. recently released NetShare onto the iTunes App Store. The $9.99 application promised to allow you to share your iPhone's network connection with your computer via a SOCKS5 proxy. Well, the application appears to have gone missing from the App Store.
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Turn off Data Detectors in Mail.app
Among the new features Apple touted in Leopard was data detectors in Mail.app. The idea is that if somebody sends you an email with a street address in it, for example, Mail.app can detect that it's a street address and add it an Address Book contact with just a couple of clicks. Unfortunately, while the basic idea isn't bad, sometimes you just want to copy something and the data detectors simply get in the way (and leads, in my case at least, to some gratuitous cursing).Well, Michael Tsai has found the solution with a hidden preference. All you have to do is type in (or copy and paste in) one line to the Terminal and the data detectors will be banished from Mail.app. Head on over to Tsai's post for full details and kiss the cursing goodbye. [via Daring Fireball]Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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Tales From The Command Line: What’s Going On? (lsof)
As mentioned in the previous installment, there is a very useful command buried deep within the confines of your OS X terminal. This command - lsof (LiSt Open Files) - is like the Swiss Army knife of utilities, proving information on files, directories, volumes and even what is happening on the network. Unlike iftop, lsof does not require any downloads. Simply open up a Terminal.app session and enter: lsof. Give that command a minute to run and prepare to be overwhelmed with information in a cryptic, textual, tabular format. The command, used in that way, is actually pretty useless (from an interactive standpoint). Its true power becomes unleashed with the proper command-line options, execution privileges and when grouped with some other command-line-fu. After the small primer in this post, you should be well equipped to figure out what applications are talking on the network, what files your applications have open and what is keeping your volumes from being able to be ejected. Before we begin, it may be a bit confusing when a utility that claims to list open files can provide information on network traffic. You have to remember that in OS X (UNIX-like systems in general) an open file may be a regular file, a directory, a block special (enables communication with device drivers) file, a character special (facilitates communication with a device one character at a time) file, a library, a stream or a network file (i.e. a network connection). The examples in this post also make heavy use of CLIX (Command Line Interface for OS *X*). As you'll see, lsof output can be a bit much for those just getting started with Terminal.app and CLIX provides a nice wrapper around the OS X command line utilities and allows you to keep similar commands organized with a much friendlier output window than the Terminal. It comes with an amazing set of pre-built command libraries that are well worth the time to go through. You will come away with a great education on the innards of OS X. (more…)
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News: Apple posts, pulls iPhone tethering app from App Store
NetShare, a new iPhone application that allows users to share their phone's cellular internet connection with their computers, was posted to and then pulled from the App Store last evening. Developed by Nullriver Software, which recently released its Tuner Internet Radio application, NetShare uses a SOCKS5 proxy connection to enable sharing of the iPhone's internet over Wi-Fi, which could potentially lead to greater data usage than with…
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Looking for a Cause for Thursday's Sell-off? Blame Greenspan
We had a real chance to complete a third wave up Thursday in the S&P 500, the Nasdaq, and the Dow. So what stopped that move dead in its track? Was it the lower than expected GDP, was it the higher than expected job claims, or was it the impulsive move oil made Wednesday?Actually, it was none of these. Sure we gapped down yesterday morning on the GDP and jobs reports, but then the indices rebounded and climbed throughout the day.
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Are you addicted to email?
Posted by Dennis SellersIf you check your email in the middle of the night or even while driving, you're not alone. According to AOL Mail's fourth annual Email Addiction Survey, nearly half (46 percent) of email users said they're hooked on email (up from just 15 percent last year) and 51 percent check...
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Macsimum Migration Kit: password management software
Posted by Dennis SellersIn this week's Macsimum Migration Kit, we're serving up part one of our round-up of Mac software for password management. For those new to the column, Macsimum Migration is our term for companies moving from Windows machines to Macs—or at least adding or increasing the number of Macs they use....
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Mac Bloggers Chatter Over Chipsets, Bemoan MobileMe, Jerk Geniuses' Chains
Two major stories have been unfolding throughout the Apple blogosphere this week -- the service outages surrounding the launch of Apple's .Mac replacement, MobileMe, and the rumor that Apple could be ready to cut up Intel's chipsets in favor of something else entirely when it releases its next generation of MacBooks. Plus, not everyone is happy with the iPhone's proprietary nature. E-mail was up in the air for weeks for 20,000 of Apple's .Mac-to-MobileMe subscribers.
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Softpress Systems Freeway 5 Pro
Freeway’s use of Mac OS X conventions make using it a smooth ride. read more
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Will Music Sales Be Profitable for Record Companies in Ten Years?
A few months ago I discussed how the real problem facing the music industry (artists, record companies and traditional music stores) was the changing economics of music sales, much more than their slowness in adopting digital music, lawsuits, etc. The idea is that consumers are actually purchasing just as much (if not more) music as the ever have, but the record companies aren't generating as much profit because the digital music revolution means that consumers can acquire significantly more music for a lot less money.A perfect example is Real Network's (RNWK) Rhapsody service. With it, a consumer could spend $15.99/month and put hundreds (if not thousands) of songs on their Mp3 player that would cost them hundreds to thousands of dollars otherwise. Apple's (AAPL) iTunes improves the numbers somewhat, but there too, people can download the 2-3 songs they like the most from a particular album instead of paying the record company for the whole thing.
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Apple releases Security Update 2008-005
Posted by Dennis SellersApple has released Security Update 2008-005. Apple says it improves the security of Mac OS X. Previous security updates have been incorporated into this security update.