Sep 7, 2008 Sep 9, 2008 Monday September 8, 2008
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Mac OS Ken: 09.09.2008
Piper Offers Last Minutes Guesses Before âRockâ Show / iPhone Spurs Smartphone Growth (Weak Economy and All) / Slowing Smartphone Growth Hits Apple, Nokia, and RIM Stocks / iPhone 3G On Sale at Best Buy / Apple and AT&T Sued (Again) Over iPhone 3G / Report: Mac OS X 10.5.5 Seeds Continue / Spore Origins Out for iPhone and iPod Touch / Noel Gallagher: Oasis Used GarageBand for Album Demos / Microsoft Updates Zune Line
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UEI Releases ZeptoPad 1.5 for iPhone, iPod touch
Posted by Dennis SellersUEI has released Zeptopad 1.5, an update of the note-taking app for the iPhone and iPod touch. Users can now choose from a total of three different display modes: plain, ruler, and grid.
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Home Sweet Home
Picture the scene. You move into a new house and have no idea how to furnish it! Sure, there are some items you know you need but, other than that, it's a blank canvas. Who do you call? How about the Home Sweet Home team? Learn about your client's tastes, create fabulous interior designs, and then direct your build team to assemble it all, right before your eyes! With simple controls, a fun style and an easy to use interface, Home Sweet Home is one creative gaming experience! System Requirements: OS: Mac OS X 10.4+ read more
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3Dconnexion's 3D mice now supported by DAZ Studio
Posted by Dennis Sellers3Dconnexion's 3D mice are now supported by the latest version of DAZ Studio, the free 3D figure posing, rendering and animation software by DAZ 3D.
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Follow live coverage of Apple's 'Let's Rock' event today
Posted by Dave MertenApple's 'Let's Rock' event starts today at 10:00AM PST in San Francisco, CA. Macsimum News will be posting complete coverage and reaction to the event throughout the day, so keep checking back and 'Rock On' with us.
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'Harry Potter and Half-Blood Prince' game will ship with film in summer '09
Posted by Dennis SellersElectronic Arts and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment have announced that the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince video and computer game will be released globally in summer 2009, alongside the Warner Bros. Pictures' film based on J.K. Rowling's sixth Harry Potter book.
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Gates, Seinfeld and the $300 Million Ad to Nowhere.
Daniel Eran Dilger Paul Thurrott celebrated Microsoft’s new $300 million ad campaign as a promising new attempt to stop “the bad guys” at Apple from further eroding Microsoft’s monopoly grip on the desktop PC market. The problem is that the new ads don’t accomplish what they set out to do. Here’s why. [Artwork contributed by Alf of [...]
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Sonic Boom creates ringtone maker for iPhone
Posted by Dennis SellersSonic Boom, a developer and publisher of personalized mobile entertainment, has announced that it has launched the first ringtone maker for the iPhone, ToneMaker with Voice. It allows users to create original iPhone ringtones using a selection of music tracks in various genres—hip-hop, rock, reggaeton, pop, country, electronic and more—while...
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Last second App Store deals
Filed under: Deals, App Store Tonight, TUAW has a couple of last-second deals for you from the iPhone App Store: Air Sharing Although Avatron's Air Sharing software will eventually sell for $7, they're offering it for free for the next couple of weeks. Air Sharing allows you to mount your iPhone or iPod as a wireless drive on any Mac, Windows or Linux computer according to the Application Description writeup on iTunes. Text Guru For the next 24 hours, you can pick up a copy of Brancipater Software's Text Guru app for just $0.99. It normally sells for $5. it provides an iPhone-based multi-function text editor that includes cut/copy/paste (inside the app, not between apps), file sharing and email support. [Via CoolThingsForComputers]Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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Ilium Software adds sync to eWallet for iPhone
Posted by Dennis SellersIlium Software has announced synchronization for eWallet on iPhone and iPod touch devices. eWallet is an information and password manager application that's used to store personal information like credit card numbers, passwords, PINs and much more.
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Apple's 'Lets Rock' event is tomorrow: 10:00AM PT / 1:00PM ET
Filed under: Announcements Yes, it seems like some kind of crazy dream, but Apple's big Fall event is descending upon us at a merciless speed. Join us tomorrow when we'll be liveblogging the whole thing from its destructive, brain-shattering start, straight through to the thirilling (yet inevitable) universe-collapsing finish. Will we see those heavily rumored iPod nano 4Gs? Will Apple finally release a fresh Newton? Will Steve Jobs float magically over the crowd like a figure from a Chagall? Find out tomorrow.Where you'll need to be:Live from Apple's 'Let's Rock' event in San FranciscoTime zones: 07:00AM - Hawaii10:00AM - Pacific11:00AM - Mountain12:00PM - Central01:00PM - Eastern06:00PM - London07:00PM - Paris09:00PM - Moscow02:00AM - Tokyo (September 10th)Permalink|Email this|Comments
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Plusmo kicks off Football game for iPhone, iPod touch
Posted by Dennis SellersPlusmo has released Football for the iPhone and iPod touch. It offers up-to-the-minute scores, live game coverage and news of American football.
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Forum Activity: September 8, 2008
Network Issues with MAC & PC DHCP/Firewall issues Ubuntu on HDD Macbook Internet Connection Laptop Overheating?
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First annual IBC FCPUG SuperMeet agenda set
Posted by Dennis SellersThe agenda has been announced for the 1st Annual IBC FCPUG SuperMeet to be held Sunday, Sept. 14, in Amsterdam, The Netherlands at the Culture Park Westergasfabriek, Gashouder as part of the giant trade show, IBC 2008.
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Transmit turns 10, we Panic
Filed under: SoftwareMilestones come and go, but the big milestone of the day was 10 years in the making. Panic's Co-founder, Steven Frank, noted on his personal website that their flagship product, Transmit turned 10 years old.Transmit, originally called "Transit," was released on September 8, 1998. Who knows, without the success of Transmit we might not have the other beautiful applications from Panic. If you want to relive the old days of Transmit, Panic offers up a free version (you must be running a pre-OS X Mac, or have a classic mode enabled Mac) for your downloading pleasure. Join TUAW in saying, "Congratulations, Panic." We cannot wait to see what is next!Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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Misspelling is faster on the iPhone
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Productivity, Tips and tricks, iPhoneI'm not sure that I quite agree with this in the wider scheme of things, but these examples are hard to argue with -- apparently it's easier and faster to just misspell words on your iPhone than to take the time to type them out in full. "We're," for example, is usually six hits on the iPhone's keyboard -- four for the letters, and one to shift to punctuation and another to punch in the apostrophe. But if you type "Weree," just five hits, Apple's little corrector will fix it for you, and you can keep on writing.Normally, the little corrections made by the iPhone are more frustrating than anything else, but in this case, it could be a benefit -- as long as you remember to misspell all the words with apostrophes while typing. Hopefully, any habits incurred while trying to save time on the iPhone won't translate into anything else you happen to write -- weree not responsible for any mistakes that might get made.[via MacBytes]Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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Intel ships new eco-friendly Intel Xeon server processors
Posted by Dennis SellersIntel continues to expand its 45-nanometer (nm) manufacturing chip portfolio with the launch of its first four halogen-free Intel Xeon processors.
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iPhone Tips: Fine Photos
Shoot—or at least end up with—snappier pictures with the built in camera. Fill the Frame read more
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Do subscriptions make sense for iTunes?
One of the rumors heading into Tuesday’s music event is that Apple will add a subscription component to its iTunes Store. Is that a good idea? Christopher Breen and Philip Michaels duke it out.
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Do subscriptions make sense for iTunes?
One of the rumors heading into Tuesday’s music event is that Apple will add a subscription component to its iTunes Store. Is that a good idea? Christopher Breen and Philip Michaels duke it out.
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Dude, he invented the friggin' iPod. Have you heard of it?
Filed under: Apple Corporate, iPod Family, Odds and endsMeet Kane Kramer. In 1979, he filed a patent for a device called the IXI, an early digital device that held about three minutes of music. He let the patent lapse a decade later, and never saw a penny from Apple's blistering success with the iPod. You might think this was a story of a bitter man with an agenda against Apple. There, you'd be wrong. Apple was dealing with a lawsuit from Burst.com in which they claimed to have originally come up with the idea for the iPod. Apple asked Kramer to testify on their behalf, talking about how he filed his patent years before Burst did. Instead of fighting further, Burst and Apple settled out of court. Kramer was paid a consultancy fee for traveling to California and making his deposition. "The questioning by the Burst legal counsel there was tough, ten hours of it. But I was happy to do it," Kramer told the Daily Mail. "To be honest, I was just so pleased that finally something that I had done which has been a huge success and changed the music industry was being acknowledged." Presumably on friendly terms, Kramer is negotiating now for compensation from Apple with regards to his original idea. [Via Valleywag.]Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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DMG Architect update includes complete AppleScript support, more
Posted by Dennis SellersSourcebits has updated DMG Architect, its DMG package maker program for Mac OS X, to version 1.5. The upgrade includes complete AppleScript support to automate DMG production.
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Pixelmator puts new shortcuts in 1.2.3, pitches 1.3 Tempo beta
Filed under: Software, ProductivityMy favorite plucky little picture editor, Pixelmator, has recently updated to version 1.2.3 with a few bug fixes and improvements. They've also added even more keyboard shortcuts -- enough to necessitate a keyboard shortcuts document. Unfortunately, making it white-on-black, which may fit the app's style, doesn't really help with printing. However, if you want to go a little bit past the usual Open Apple-C and Open Apple-S (yes, I'm a die-hard, and so are they), it's a good cheat sheet.But the even bigger news is that beta 1.3 "Tempo" is right around the corner, and they're soliciting beta testers right now. If, like me, you use the thing every day and want to see what the new version is like, hit up their beta email and see if you can get a little testing in for them. This is an app that has grown in leaps and bounds ever since it first premiered. While it still isn't quite as in-depth or solid as many other image-editing apps out there, its style and relative simplicity has really won me over.Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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DesktopCoreLocation
Philippe Casgrain’s entry to the C4[2] IronCoder contest: “a clean-room implementation of Apple’s CoreLocation.framework, complete with sample application.” ★
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Chrome features are coming to WebKit
Filed under: Internet Tools, DeveloperAlthough Google's Chrome browser is currently only available to Windows users (unless you are running an Intel-based Mac and VMWare Fusion or Parallels), its WebKit underpinnings mean that Safari, and other WebKit-based browsers, can benefit from Google's code. One of the larger innovations of Google Chrome, the V8 JavaScript engine, is incredibly fast. The WebKit project has its own new JavaScript engine, SquirrelFish, used in Mobile Safari and the WebKit nightlies. Still, the code base for V8 along with the Skia graphics library are making their way into the main WebKit repository. The Skia graphics library may already be in some of the newest nightly builds.What does this mean for Mac and Safari users? Superficially, it might mean very little for right now, however, the Safari team can choose to implement any of the Chrome features that have been added back to the repository. That's the beauty of open source.Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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XChange releases two new XTensions for QuarkXPress 8
Posted by Dennis SellersXChange International has released two new XTensions for QuarkXPress 8.
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Tikitag promises to bring RFID tags to everything
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Wireless The Alcatel-Lucent-backed Tikitag sure has managed to keep a low profile until now, but it looks to have made quite a splash at the DemoFall conference this week, where it showed off its RFID tagging system that's apparently set to go into public beta in less than a month. The system, which Tikitag confidently boasts will "build the internet of things," promises to let you add an RFID tag to anything you like and associate it with a webpage or application -- for instance, a business card that links to page with all your social networking information or, less usefully, a cube that you can use to control iTunes. Intrigued? You'll apparently be able to pick up the Tikitag reader and ten tikitags for $50 on October 1st, with boxes of 25 tikitags also available for those looking to get a little more ambitious.[Via CNET Webware] Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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Poll: iPhone developers: are you considering Mac development?
Posted by Dennis SellersIn this week's Macsimum Poll we're asking iPhone developers if, after developing for the iPhone, they're now considering developing for the Mac. The poll is located on the home page (right hand side) below the “Macsimum Opinion” column.
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Apple Likely to Compensate Inventor of the MP3 Player
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Five iPhone apps for football junkies
Filed under: iPod Family, iTunes, iPhone, App StoreWith apologies to our friends across the pond who have their own take on what "football" really is, the first full day of a new season of American football got underway yesterday with a whole host of league games that stretched late into the night. The only thing better than watching a football game is having some really cool football-related apps on your iPhone or iPod touch while you watch. Keep reading to learn more about my favorite five apps. Pro Football Live - Here's where to go for all the latest updates, scores, and news around the NFL. Customize your own page to the upcoming schedules of your favorite teams and the latest photos from around the league. Individual team page give great breakdowns of team and individual stats on every game -- including preseason. If you're a stats junkie, this is the app for you. Fantasy Football Cheatsheet '08 - Keep track of everything that's going down with your players and team with this cool app. It's got the rankings of 400 players and their defenses, so you can easily through data while you assemble your draft wish list. Search players by name or team, and choose the My Team tab for instant info on how your players are doing. Sweet. AP Top25 College Football 2008 - Not strictly related to the NFL, of course, but how else would I keep track of how well West Virginia played (or not) this week, and how those Heisman candidates are looking? Use this app to get weekly AP poll info, view team progress and scores, get rankings, and even view photos of recent games. Paper Football Lite - Jonesing for a football fix but stuck at the office? Play a few quick rounds of Paper Football instead. It's not the same thing as a fun game of pickup in the backyard, but it'll do in a pinch. Don't have an iPod touch or iPhone? Not to worry, I've got you covered. UPDATE: I pulled an app at the last minute and, as an eagled-eyed reader who counts better than I noticed, that knocks the count down to four. For an extra App-By-Default, check out comment #4. :-) Permalink|Email this|Comments
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Pinnacle Systems unveils new USB digital TV tuners to bring HDTV to computers
Posted by Dennis SellersPinnacle Systems, the consumer division of Avid Technology, has announced its new Pinnacle TV for Mac HD mini Stick just in time for the U.S. fall TV season. The company says the USB-powered tuner (and its Windows equivalent) is the smallest TV sticks on the market that offer high reception...
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Sept. 8 'Macsimum Podcast' now available
Posted by Dennis SellersThe Macsimum Podcast for Sept. 8 is now available here and the RSS feed is here.
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'Macsimum Recommended Reading' for Sept. 8
Posted by Dennis Sellers “Apple doesn't see any ceiling to Mac gains: Apple Inc. doesn't see 'any ceiling' to market-share gains for its Macintosh computer, either in the US or globally, Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer said.” Gulf News
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Reggie's still spinning that "we're working on it" line for Wii storage
Filed under: Gaming, StorageWe didn't wake up today hoping to hate on Nintendo, but they're making it a bit too easy. Granted, the Nintendo WiFi router could certainly find a place in the homes of the tech illiterate, but Nintendo keeps hiding behind the apron strings of its casual gamer fanbase, and we don't have to sit around and take it. Two months after Nintendo finally admitted it had a problem with Wii storage and claimed to be "working on a solution," Reggie's still playing that line -- to diminishing effects -- in Club Nintendo, the official Nintendo mag of Latin America. He went on to say that "we have never said that it will be a hard drive nor have we mentioned how we will fix this issue, but we are going to deliver a better way to store the games." Weak. Nintendo could easily create a backup solution for SD cards or the ubiquitous thumbstick, but instead the company is letting its most active users suffer with the mere 512MB of built-in storage, requiring them to re-download games from the Wii Shop, and making few promises about when or what the storage solution will be -- not cool, Nintendo. Phew, good to get that off our chests. Now, if you'll excuse us, we have some "High School Musical: Sing It!" to attend to.[Via GameDaily]Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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Demo: G.ho.st gives users way to access their virtual computer on iPhone
The Israeli company has already launched for full browsers, but it is now available for mobile browsers on the iPhone and other mobile phones.
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Copy and paste on the Newton
Filed under: Hardware, Portables, iPhone, Apple History While everyone waits for Apple to implement copy and paste on the iPhone (or hacks their own), Newton users have been enjoying it for 15 years.Here's a great video of the just how Apple pulled it off on a previous touch device. Clicking and dragging selects the text, and moving it to the side of the screen sends it to the clipboard, represented by a shortcut. You can then move multiple copies out of the clipboard and into your applications with a drag of that shortcut.It seems like a variation of this could work for the iPhone -- drag text to an edge or corner as a clipboard. Of course, there's a lot less text manipulation on the iPhone than the Newton, which was a PDA.Either way, I still love my Newton. Sure, people make fun of me for carrying around a PDA the size of a baby dolphin, but I don't care. At least I have copy and paste.Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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Studiometry 6.0 adds itemized project estimates, SQL Database, more
Posted by Dennis SellersOranged Software has released Studiometry 6.0, an update to the Mac OS X compatible software for companies to organize, plan, invoice, track and create with Client and Project data. The upgrade features a new SQL database to store program data that offers performance enhancements.
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Apple Gazette Daily 342 - Predictions for the “Let's Rock” Event
podcast sponsor link:Click Here to check out Blogflux Groups! Today's Show: Predictions for the Apple “Let's Rock” event. 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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The Continuing Correlation Between Apple’s Share Price and Steve Jobs’s Weight
Speaking of Dan Frommer, he sums up the thinking on Wall Street regarding tomorrow’s “Let’s Rock” special event: New iPods — expected to be announced during an Apple media event tomorrow — are key to Apple’s holiday sales. But key to Apple’s (AAPL) stock activity tomorrow: How CEO Steve Jobs — who’s expected to deliver a keynote — looks on stage. Robert Holmes, writing for TheStreet.com, questions whether Jobs will even appear on stage: Jobs has previously battled pancreatic cancer, but his frail appearance during the launch of the iPhone 3G in early June ignited speculation that he is continuing to battle the disease, sending Apple shares tumbling more than 7% during the week. Many Apple shareholders hope Jobs will be the keynote speaker during tomorrow’s event, assuaging fears. Spoiler: Jobs will be on stage, in his usual role. But he remains just as thin as he was in June. This isn’t some sort of state secret, though. Jobs is a common presence on the Apple campus. He eats in the cafeteria, he walks around between buildings. He’s not and has never been a recluse. ★
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Winners in the Back-to-School giveaways
Filed under: TUAW Business If you entered one of our snazzy back-to-school giveaways in August you might want to check your email (and junk mail folders) today. We've sent confirmations to everyone who won. Congratulations to you, randomly-selected recipients!Here's a look at what we gave away: Ten licenses of Searchlight, the OS X and iPhone search tool Three copies of Bento, a personal database solution A big bag of goodies from Dr. Bott A Dymo DiscPainter 200 premium disc conversions from Ripstyles A bunch of games from Freeverse We'll update this post with the winners once everyone has responded.Permalink|Email this|Comments
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iPhone sales could counter mixed report on smartphones
A down economy has slowed the rate of growth for smartphones, but could provide an opportunity for the iPhone to outperform in 2008.Read More...
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Gartner: Smartphone Sales Grew 15.7% in Q2
Worldwide smartphone sales grew 15.7% in Q2 from a year earlier, Gartner announced Monday morning. The research firm says smartphones remained 11% of the mobile device market, unchanged from a year earlier. Gartner analyst Robert Cozza noted in a statement that the growth rate has slowed due to the difficult macro economy. “The current economic environment continues to negatively impact the market,” he says, “limiting consumer spending and replacement purchases in general.” He also said smartphone sales were slowed by “new compelling touch technology” on “enhanced phones” rather than smartphones.
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4th Gen iPod nano Rumors Everywhere!
Ahh, what’s a day in the life of the internet without an Apple rumor? It appears that Digg founder, Kevin Rose may have been right after all. MacNN says it can verify that the super-imposed photos we showed you awhile ago were, in fact, accurate portrayals of the new fourth-generation iPod nanos. read more
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TUAW Tip: Regular Expressions for Beginners
Filed under: TUAW TipsSometimes I think Regular Expressions are like the tax code: if someone professes to know everything about them, they're probably not telling the truth. In reality, Regular Expressions (or RegEx) is a syntax to help you construct very precise search terms to find and replace bits of text in a variety of applications. In applications like Coda, BBEdit, and TextMate, you can search for a "string" -- meaning just any old collection of letters next to each other -- using a Regular Expression. For example, I could search for the string "laugh" and it would show up in laughter, slaughter, and Laughlin. While I can't show you everything about Regular Expressions, I can at least start you off. Keep reading for more about how you can integrate Regular Expressions into your workflow.Continue reading TUAW Tip: Regular Expressions for BeginnersRead|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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Microsoft takes another stab at Apple's iPod
Microsoft has released the latest versions of its portable media player, designed for the daunting task of challenging archrival Apple’s market-dominating iPod.
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iPhone users get non-NFL sanctioned NFL application
NFL fans rejoice, an NFL stat tracking app for the iPhone!Read More...
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News: Vimpelcom to sell iPhone unsubsidized
Vimpelcom, one of three Russian carriers to recently announce agreements with Apple to sell the iPhone, will not subsidize the device when it goes on sales this year. “We are in principle considering no subsidies for the time being as Russian law does not allow locking mobile phones,” Vimpelcom CEO Alexander Izosimov said in an interview. Izosimov added that the company is eager to begin sales of the iPhone. “The earlier we start…
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Wired's Leander Kahney Attacks Steve Jobs, Again
Daniel Eran Dilger An author who has devoted his career to deriding Steve Jobs’ Apple as being “irredeemably evil” and portraying its users as a “cult” has scribbled up a new missive for Wired that attempts to hijack the company’s upcoming iPod event and replace any discussion of new technology with a tasteless personal attack of [...]
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Rose’s iTunes 8 mockup and Let’s Rock preditions
The Oracle of Cupertino, er Kevin Rose, has posted his predictions for tomorrow’s Let’s Rock event in San Francisco, it’s mostly a re-hash of his previous predictions though: New design for the iPod Nano (this one) iPod price reductions 2.1 software on iPod Touch iTunes 8.0 New audio visualization (this one) Genius playlist Genius sidebar Grid view An interesting addition is his marked up [...]
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The new Zune plays its tune
Microsoft lets "slip" Zune news one day before Apple's big shindig, Big ad group says Google-Yahoo is a bad idea, Who says real spies don't dig social networking?
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'Take Control of Podcasting on a Mac' new from TidBITS
Posted by Dave MertenPodcasting has become the talk radio of the Internet era. Beginning a podcast is easier than starting a radio station, but it's still hard to assemble the necessary hardware and software, and to learn essential tricks of the trade. Mac users can easily meet that challenge with the second edition...
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Microsoft Gurus are not Apple Geniuses
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, AppleAccording to a Friday article on Yahoo! Finance, Microsoft is introducing "Microsoft Gurus" at Best Buy and Circuit City stores nationwide. They plan on having 155 Gurus deployed by year-end, and will expand the program based on its success.While it may seem like this is copying Apple's Genius program, it's not. The Geniuses hang out at the Genius Bar in the local Apple Store, helping new Mac owners migrate data or resolve problems, fixing iPod and iPhone issues, and otherwise giving the customer help when they really need it -- after they've committed money to a product and can't get something to work properly. In contrast, the Microsoft Guru program is only concerned with pre-sales questions. Gurus provide demos of how Microsoft applications work together, as well as answer questions about PCs in general and Windows in particular. This is reminiscent of Microsoft's previous attempts at having in-store sales reps, particularly in 2004 and 2005 when the company had contract staff at stores to push the ever-popular MSN Direct Smart Watches. You say you've never heard of MSN Direct or Smart Watches? That should give you an idea of how successful that pre-sales program was!What do you think about the Microsoft Gurus? Leave a comment and/or take our poll. View PollRead|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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Garmin releases RoadTrip Mac client software
nüvi users, listen up. Garmin has taken the training wheels off their OS X application for the nüvi. Previously called Project Bobcat while it was in beta, it’s now released as RoadTrip. The 63MB download is available on their Mac software page and has the following features: RoadTrip allows you to transfer waypoints, tracks, and routes between [...]
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Spore for Mac and Spore Origins for iPhone/iPod touch Released
Yesterday, the long awaited Spore was finally released here in the US. Spore, a product of Sims mastermind Will Wright, has been in development for some 8 years with the public knowing about the game for about the last 3-4 years. The lengthy development time along with multiple release-date delays built up a huge amount of anticipation for the game. Spore is a multi-genre “massively single-player online game” developed by Maxis and designed by Will Wright. It allows a player to control the evolution of a species from its beginnings as a unicellular organism, through development as an intelligent and social creature, to interstellar exploration as a spacefaring culture. It has drawn wide attention for its massive scope, and its use of open-ended gameplay and procedural generation. (Wikipedia) In addition to the game itself, there is also an extensive online database of all the creatures users have created called Sporepedia. It currently has over 8.4 million user-created creatures. (If you have a Spore account and are logged in, feel free to check out my Spore profile.) My initial impression of the game is that it is incredibly addictive and fun. There are a slew of complexities that make the game a different experience for every player and helps keep the game fresh. I've been playing the game on my MacBook Pro (2.33GHz Core 2 Duo, 3GB RAM). Initially the framerate on the game felt really slow so after reducing some of the graphic settings in the game everything felt incredibly smooth. It was a bit of a letdown that the game wouldn't run at full graphic capacity on my MBP. I'll be doing a full, in-depth review in the coming weeks on game play and performance. SporeOrigins Last week, Spore Origins for regular iPods was released. And now, 5 days later, Spore Origins for the iPhone/iPod touch has been released and is available for purchase in the iTunes App Store for $9.99. Spore Origins is essentially just the Cell Phase of the regular Spore game that consists of you, as a microbe, swimming around eating other creatures. You then upgrade/evolve your creature as you gain more DNA. Overall gameplay is really smooth and the tilt control works better than I thought it would. It's not an incredibly complex game but it's still a lot of fun. Have you played Spore or Spore Origins? What has been your initial impression as far as performance and game play goes?
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Microsoft confirms new Zunes
Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video So much for that ta-da event tomorrow -- Microsoft just confirmed the fall Zune lineup a little earlier than planned, and it's almost exactly as leaked: capacity bumps to 120GB and 16GB, new WiFi music store, Zune 3.0 software with recommendations and pre-programmed theme channels, and two new games, Hexic and Texas Hold 'Em. Oh, and that snappy blue flash Zune we just spotted. Pricing is similarly unsurprising, seeing as we've had it for a week: the 120GB Zune is $250, while the 16GB flash model is $199 and the 8 gigger is $149. Oh well, at least we still have those new mice and webcams to look forward to tomorrow, right? Certainly nothing else is going on.Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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Telestream introduces Drive-in for disc-free DVD storage on a Mac
Posted by Dennis SellersTelestream. a provider of Flip4Mac Windows Media Components for QuickTime, has announced Drive-in , a software application that allows Mac users to create and store images of digital video discs (DVDs) on personal computer hard drives.
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3rd Australian Apple Store opens this weekend
Filed under: Apple Corporate, RetailAustralians waited a long time for Apple to establish a retail presence in their backyard, but now the stores are popping up everywhere. Apple Store Chadstone will open on Saturday, September 13th at 10:00 AM. This will be Australia's third store to open in so many months. As ifoAppleStore points out, with all three of Australia's Apple Stores in the east (this one is south of Melbourne), there's plenty of room for expansion in the west (like Perth).If you visit Apple Store Chadstone over the weekend, let us know! We'd love to have your stories and pictures.Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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iBikeConsole designed for iPod nano-using cyclists
Posted by Dennis SellersCyclists who are music enthusiasts who own iPod nanos can now play and change tunes wirelessly, without jeopardizing safety or affecting cycling performance thanks to the US$86 iBikeConsole. With just the push of a button on a remote control unit, riders can also monitor their speed and distance travel.
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iPhone hits the road with Avego's Shared Transport app
Posted by Dennis SellersMapflow has announced Avego, a new technology designed to reduce wasted seat capacity in cars and expand commuting options. Avego pairs passengers and drivers through a system using iPhones and other mobile devices.
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iTunes 8 Not Leaked, Internet Catches Breath
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Tuesday's Apple iPod event: Live blog starts at 10 a.m. PDT
It's time once again for an Apple media event, and we'll bring you live updates--and photos--of the action in downtown San Francisco as it happens.
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MacUpdate offers back-to-school themed software bundle promo
Posted by Dennis SellersMacUpdate has launched a new back-to-school themed software bundle promotion, delivering up to 10 applications valued at more than US$600 for $49.99. The offer is available through Sept. 10.
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Ryan Block Disassembles Dan Lyons’s ‘Apple as Monopolist’ Newsweek Piece
Ryan Block: Maybe it’s just me, but I think Dan did a much better job at cutting to the heart of what makes Cupertino tick when he was doing so with subversive parody. ★
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Laptops Go Live
Sasha Frere-Jones in The New Yorker, on the growing use of computers in live music performances: Last December, a friend and I went to a release party for Mary J. Blige’s “Growing Pains” album. Near huge screens showing Blige videos, a d.j. was playing records on two turntables. The d.j.’s eyes, however, were trained on an Apple MacBook on a shelf above them. As a succession of Blige songs faded from one into the next, the d.j. never changed the records. My friend asked, “Is there a new Mary medley I don’t know about?” The answer was no. The d.j., like many today, was using a program called Serato Scratch Live, which uses a turntable as a knob or a switch. ★
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Press event bingo on your iPhone
Filed under: Software, Other Events, Internet, Internet Tools, iPhoneAre you excited for the Sept. 9 press event? Do you like to play bingo? Are you an iPhone application developer? Then this post was delivered from on high directly to your visual cortex.We've played bingo here on TUAW before. Who could forget iPhone Bingo or MWSF 2008 Bingo? Those were good times. Today, Ernst-Jan Pfauth at The Next Web wants to create a Let's Rock! bingo game, and he needs your help.Forget PDFs, he wants a full iPhone application, and has posted some possible mock-ups on his site. It would be fun to play collaboratively over Wi-Fi or even upload additional cards for future events.A web-based version is available here, but let's help Ernst-Jan realize his dream. iPhone developers -- can you give the guy a hand? And while we're at it... speaking of "limited utility..."View PollRead|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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iPhone 3G now available at 980+ Best Buy locations
Since the launch of the original iPhone back in June 2007, the only place you could (legally) get an iPhone in the US was either at one of Apple's 197 retail stores or one of AT&T's 1,800+ retail stores. As of Sunday, that number of locations has increased by almost 50% as close to 1,000 Best Buy locations are now selling the iPhone 3G. This makes them the first third-party retailer to be allowed to carry the iPhone. The main benefit (at least to Apple) is that this obviously expands their retail saturation giving them the ability to snag the casual shopper who might not normally be shopping in an Apple store. There is, however, no economic benefit to the buyer by purchasing from Best Buy as prices for the iPhone 3G will be exactly the same as they are at all Apple and AT&T locations.
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iMarkMySpot is new digital photo geotagging app for the iPhone
Posted by Dennis SellersiCloseBy.com has released iMarkMySpot, a new app for the iPhone that's used to “one-touch” geotag and geocode digital photos withGPS locations. It uses the built-in GPS functionality of the iPhone to store exact waypoint locations. iMarkMySpot is a free download from the Apple App Store.
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Yet another iPod nano 4G case leaks out
Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video Yep, there's another 4G iPod Nano case, this time apparently accompanied by official-looking PR -- we think it's probably safe to assume we'll be seeing this bad boy make its debut tomorrow. We're also hearing that current-gen iPod touches are being pulled from store shelves with instructions not to sell them, anyone else hear or see anything similar?[Via Gearlog]Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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Article: iPhone Gems: Every RSS Reader, Reviewed
For those who like to stay as up-to-date as possible with their favorite sites, news, and time-wasters, RSS has become an invaluable online tool. It comes as no surprise, then, that there are no less than 11 RSS reader applications currently available for the iPhone and iPod touch. Ranging from extremely impressive to extremely disappointing, and from free to download to a price of $10, there's a large variety in this group of apps, which should…
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Best Buy now selling iPhones
Posted by Dennis SellersBest Buy began selling the iPhone 3G today, becoming the first U.S. chain to do so outside of Apple and AT&T's own stores.
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Waiting on Spore and the App Store approval process
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, iPhone, App StoreSpore Origins for the iPhone does exist. We've seen it. However, as of this writing, it still hasn't spawned in the App Store.Several months ago, it was announced that an iPhone companion would be released on the same date as the desktop version. An iPod version is available (in fact it preceded the full version of Spore), but iPhone users are still waiting to evolve. What gives?Granted, it's not even 24 hours late, but we've heard stories of Apple taking their sweet time in approving App Store applications. One developer even told us of receiving notificaiton that their application was available hours before it actually showed up in the store.Of course, we cannot confirm the reason for Spore's tardiness. We will keep our eyes peeled for it, and let you know when it arrives.Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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AcroDesign releases NIV iPhone Bible
Posted by Dennis SellersAcroDesign Technologies has released an NIV iPhone Bible. The AcroBible costs US$28.99 and is a download rather than an online, annual-fee based Bible.
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Yet another iPhone 3G lawsuit filed against Apple, AT&T
Posted by Dennis SellersAnother day, another lawsuit. Actually, it's the third lawsuit against Apple and AT&T regarding the iPhone 3G. A New Jersey man has sued Apple and AT&T over charges that its iPhone 3G drops calls and doesn't consistently connect to AT&T's data network, reports Computerworld.
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Microsoft Gurus a Genius Bar rip-off?
Since news came out that Microsoft would be deploying a “Microsoft Gurus” program as part of their $300 million effort to improve their image, they have been consistently compared to ripping off Apple's “Genius Bar” program. Microsoft Gurus is program Microsoft is starting up where they will deploy customer-service reps to various electronics retailers such as Best Buy and Circuit City. The purpose of these representatives will be to help potential customers learn how Microsoft's products “work together” by giving demos and answering questions. While Microsoft Gurus have indeed drawn comparisons to Apple's Genius Bar, they aren't really the same thing. Microsoft Gurus are pre-sales customer-service reps. They offer no help with your existing products or any sort of real technical support. Their main purpose is to show potential customers “the interconnectedness of Microsoft's Windows products,” according to Microsoft's general manager of corporate communications, Tom Pilla. My first thought on this was that there would be a real conflict of interest having a Microsoft employee floating around an electronics store but Pillas says that Gurus are not paid on commission. Instead, performance is measured by the Guru's “ability to translate the technology to a language consumers feel comfortable with.” Whatever that means. I don't feel comfortable with Microsoft translating anything for me…especially if their standard for good communication is anything remotely close to how they translate their technology with their most recent commercial. Microsoft has been piloting about 25 of these Gurus for the past 10 months with apparently enough success to expand to 155 Gurus by the end of the year. What do you think? Is this just Microsoft blatantly copying Apple again? Is there a conflict of interest having a Microsoft employee in an electronics store? Let me know your thoughts.
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Dial Directions releases Say Where for the iPhone
Posted by Dennis SellersDial Directions has released Say Where for the iPhone. It's an application for voice-entry to popular web sites for mapping, business search, and reviews.
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Blue flash Zune appears in the wild, attacked by Mr. Blurrycam
Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video Hey, is that the fabled blue flash Zune, all priced up and sitting on a Walmart shelf in Knoxville, Tennessee a whole day before it's scheduled to launch? Indeed it is -- let's hope those rumored LifeCams are pretty spectacular, because we done just scooped every other product Redmond has on tap for tomorrow. You're next, Stevie.[Thanks, Christian]Permalink|Email this|Comments
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NPD Group: Apple leaps to second among smartphone manufacturers
Posted by Dennis SellersAccording to The NPD Group, which specializes in market research for the wireless industry, consumer sales of smartphones to U.S. consumers reached nine million units from January through July 2008 versus the same time period last year—a year-over-year increase of 84 percent.
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Smith Micro releases Spring Cleaning 10 for the Mac
Posted by Dennis SellersSmith Micro Software has released Spring Cleaning 10 for Mac OS X (10.4.2 or higher). The update adds 50 tools designed to help users clean up file clutter and better manage content on their Macs, reclaim more disk space and perform system maintenance.
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Analyst: Apple 'holding up well' in tough economy
Posted by Dennis Sellers Steve Biggs, senior analyst at the Zacks.com research firm, says that Apple is holding up well among consumer electronics companies.
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O'Reilly iPhoneLive Event on November 18th
Filed under: Software, Other Events, Developer, iPhone, App Store, SDKO'Reilly has announced a new event for iPhone developers, entrepreneurs, and enthusiasts. The iPhoneLive conference is scheduled for November 18, 2008 at the Holiday Inn in San Jose, CA. Described as "a gathering of the brightest and best participants in the iPhone ecosystem today," iPhoneLive is a one-day event highlighting iPhone development, the emerging iPhone market, and how businesses can capitalize on the success of the platform. iPhoneLive is co-chaired by Raven Zachary of iPhoneDevCamp fame and Bill Dudney, who will be hosting Cocoa Studio in Denver October 28-30. Space is limited, so be sure to sign up soon if you're interested in attending.Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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Intel introduces solid-state drives for notebook, desktop computers
Posted by Dennis SellersIntel has begun shipping Intel X18-M and X25-M Mainstream SATA Solid-State Drives (SSDs) based on multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash technology for laptop and desktop computers. The new high-performing data storage devices give computer buyers a new level of system responsiveness in a lightweight, rugged, low-power package that can replace...
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Smartphone makers' shares hit on report of slowing sales
Research In Motion, Palm, Nokia and Apple shares take a hit, retreating following a dramatic slowdown reported in the sales growth of so-called smartphones.
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Microsoft's desktop prowess: Blessing or curse?
Featured links from the CNET Blog Network Microsoft's desktop prowess: Blessing or curse?--Tethered to its Windows operating system, the company has desktop power that has been a financial blessing but is becoming a strategic curse. Peering inside video-game pitches--How video games get to market is black magic. These documents may help to shed some light. Apple admits it didn't invent the iPod--Kane Kramer claims that Apple has finally admitted that he is the real father of the iPod. Did the R.E.M. Web campaign lead to higher sales?--On music-business blog Hypebot.com, a Warner Bros. exec discusses R.E.M.'s Web campaign for its latest album. But he doesn't mention if it helped sales.
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Mundue.net releases iKeno game for iPhone and iPod touch
Posted by Dennis SellersMundue.net has released its third iPhone and iPod touch application, iKeno, a full simulation of the casino numbers game. iKeno is available immediately at the Apple App Store for US$0.99.
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Casio EX-F1
Shaped and priced like a DSLR, the EX-F1 does a lot more—but also a lot less. read more
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Apple brings iPhone, toothbrush, to Best Buy stores
Apple added Best Buy to the short, short list of iPhone 3G retail outlets this weekend. Let's see how the drama unfolds.Read More...
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My ideal iPod touch
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, iPod Family, SDKDon't get me wrong, I love my iPod touch. As a matter of fact, I'm writing this post from the beach as my girlfriend goes surfing. But with Apple's new product announcement on Tuesday, it makes me wonder what changes could be in store for our favorite supercharged music player. I think the single greatest thing Apple could do for the iPod touch is take a page from the Amazon Kindle and offer free "Whispernet" service for every iPod touch sold. (Or, say, roll it in with a Mobile Me subscription.) Amazon bought access to a chunk of Sprint's EVDO network, which means every Kindle has network access wherever it goes. Apple could make such a deal with AT&T -- and its various partners worldwide -- to provide the necessary bandwidth. Who knows -- perhaps they have already. Allow tethering with software like NetShare, and you've got Internet access for your Mac, too. Instant-on, and always there. Brilliant. Another simple addition would be GPS functionality, bringing the iPod touch in line with it's newer sibling. Suddenly, the need for both a GPS and an iPod in your car is obviated, and it opens up interesting opportunities with the car manufacturers who already offer iPod integration in their vehicles. Third, and this could apply to new iPhones too, would be to allow access to the dock connector for Apps. This opens up all kinds of options for iPhone and iPod touch owners to use voice recorders and cameras, as well as potentially control a wide range of equipment from industrial automation tools to backyard telescopes. Who knows what Apple has up their sleeve? Certainly not me. But with this wish list fulfilled, you can be sure a new iPod touch Is on my immediate future.Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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CurbTalker audio listing system for realtors launched for Mac OS X
Posted by Dennis SellersParliant Corp. has launched CurbTalker, an audio listing service (IVR hotline) for real estate brokers that helps them determine which ads generate leads. It logs callers for call-back and produces color reports.
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Review: “Spore” for Mac - part one
I think its safe to say that Spore is one of the biggest game releases for the Mac in a very long time - some might even say ever. There has been a great deal of build up for this title, and with hype like this, sometimes its hard for a game to live up to expectations. So does it? In the first part of this review we'll be taking a look at the first two stages of the game. There are five total: 1) Cell 2) Creature 3) Tribe 4) Civilization 5) Space Each stage is different, and provides unique challenges to survival in this world. Cell Stage In the Cell Stage you're in a 2 dimensional puddle of primordial soup and your goal is very simple. Eat and survive. You are introduced to the basic concepts of the game, and you'll quickly find yourself looking for a mate, finding ways to defend yourself from larger creatures, and making choices about your species that will affect the rest of the game. You can choose to be a carnivore, a herbivore, or an omnivore - and each of these choices will have a direct affect on the later stages of the game. This level of Spore requires very little from you in the form of critical thinking. You can simply click towards the food that you'd like to eat. Other creatures will come and try to eat you. If they succeed, you start over as another egg and continue on your evolutionary journey. Eventually you'll figure out how to best keep your creature alive, and through the mating process, you can add new defensive and offensive traits to your species. It doesn't take long to complete the cell stage, and pull yourself out of the primordial ooze. Creature Stage When its time to head out on land you'll need legs, and the Creature Creator comes into play. If you've used the creator at all you'll be right at home, it's the same thing that was released earlier this year - except you don't have much to choose from at first. In this new land you'll have to hunt around for new parts to evolve yourself, and you'll also begin attacking other creatures (if you're a carnivore like me, anyway) wiping out their species, and building yourself up the evolutionary food chain. You'll also make friends with other tribes by dancing, singing and posing with them. I spent most of my time destroying others, though. This stage of the game reminds me very much of the early stages of World of Warcraft, where you spend most of your time just killing wolves or trolls (or whatever those little buggers are called) without doing much else. This can get a little repetitive, although I think one could argue that that might be the point of this stage in the evolutionary process. At this level you're concerned with only two things - eating to stay alive (which will involve hunting and killing other creatures if you're a carnivore), and mating (which lets you into the Creature Creator so you can make your beast more formidable against enemies). As the game continues beyond these two stages things should get more complicated, and much more interesting. I'll be spending more time with it tonight, and will update the review with a link to part two once that is completed. So far, I have to say that I find the game enjoyable, but repetitive. Hopefully, that will not be the case as we move into the more complicated stages of life.
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YAMMPS: Yet Another MobileMe Phishing Scam
It turns out that phishing scammers love MobileMe users. Another fake e-mail has made the rounds claiming to be from Apple and asking users to rectify a billing issue for September. Read More...
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Terminal Tips: Force Safari to open all links in new tab
Filed under: Terminal TipsFirefox users have been able to open all links clicked within Firefox in a new tab for a while now, but what about us poor Safari users? Well, sure, you could always hold down command while clicking a link, but that's not fun, now is it? With this simple Terminal hack, you will be surfing like a pro! Just open Terminal (/Applications/Utilities/) and type in the following command: defaults write com.apple.Safari TargetedClicksCreateTabs -bool true Once you restart Safari, all clicked links will open in a new tab. If you want to reverse the command for some reason, just replace "true" with "false." Want more tips and tricks like this? Visit TUAW's Mac 101 and Terminal Tips sections.Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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Apple lust: photos of "Let's Rock" event setup
Photos of the setup for Apple's "Let's Rock" event prove that it does, in fact, exist. A possibly larger-than-usual security regiment, however, hints that our expectations for tomorrow may not be far off.Read More...
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Apple credits Kane Kramer with invention of the digital audio player -- sort of
Filed under: Portable Audio Apple phoned up Kane "world's biggest failure" Kramer recently and had him testify in court against on Burst.com on Apple's behalf. It was a bit of a coup for Kramer, who invented the digital audio player in 1979 (with a whopping 3.5 minutes of song capacity), lost the patent when his company IXI went bankrupt in 1988, and hasn't made a dime off the idea since. While Apple was happy to use his expert witness to get out of a legal bind with Burst, and to pay a consultancy fee, there are no plans to give Kramer a slice of that iPod revenue pie. "To be honest, I was just so pleased that finally something that I had done which has been a huge success and changed the music industry was being acknowledged. I was really quite emotional about it all." Still, he's looking for a bit of cash from Apple for his copyrighted drawing of the player (above), which bears an uncanny resemblance to to Apple's iconic player.[Via MAKE]Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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News: Vers Audio offers 2X sound system in bamboo
Vers Audio has announced that it is now offering its 2X hand crafted sound system for iPod in bamboo. Originally introduced last year, the 2X features a real wood cabinet, 2 15-watt full range speakers, a built-in iPod dock, audio-in and -out, a 14 function remote control, dual rear ports for improved bass response, and a removable front grill. The Vers Audio 2X sound system for iPod will be available in Bamboo starting in October, and sells for $179.…
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10.5: Restore a folder's view options to default settings
I have most of my folders set to open with the defaults I've set for icon size, view columns, etc.; plus a few folders which have their own customized settings. In Tiger and earlier, there was a button on the View Options panel to restore a customized folder to the default view, but we lost this with Leopard.To restore a folder to the default view settings in Leopard, open the View Options panel (Command-J, or View » Show View Options) then hold down the Option key. With the Option key down, the 'Use as Defaults' button will change to 'Restore to Defaults.'
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Render iDVD '08 Projects In Bulk
I recently discovered a way to make iDVD '08 render multiple projects to disk image files while unattended. This is very useful if you have created multiple projects and don't want to babysit iDVD. You can istead leave it working on a queue of projects overnight, for example, and have a bunch of disk images waiting for you when you get back.To do this, open Script Editor and paste in the following AppleScript. tell application "iDVD" with timeout of (24 * 60 * 60) seconds -- 1 day -- Repeat the following two lines for each project you want rendered. -- Be sure each project is rendered to a different image file. open project path "/Users/michael/Movies/Spiffy Project.dvdproj" start disc image burn path "/Users/michael/Movies/Spiffy DVD Image.img" end timeoutend tellEdit the open project and start disc image burn lines as appropriate for your iDVD project. Make copies of those two lines for each project you want to render...
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One way to disable the iPhone's typing auto-correct
My fiancee Ana, recently got her iPhone in The Philippines. As she splits her typing time between English and Tagalog, she complained to me that the iPhone's autocorrect was making her Tagalog typing extremely difficult, as the iPhone kept trying to correct all her Tagalog. She asked me if I knew a way to disable the auto-correct and although I searched around the net for a published solution, couldn't find one, so I had to look on my own. Here is my workaround.The auto-correct feature is tied to the language that you are typing in. If you disable your English keyboard, the auto-correct feature will be disabled. But the iPhone will not allow you to disable the default keyboard if only one is activated. So all you have to do is activate at least one more keyboard, and you are good to go. As both my girlfriend and I have a need to type in Japanese, we both have Japanese keyboards enabled, so we were already set. But in general, this is the workaround:Home Scree...
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Apple credits Kramer as inventor of iPod Tech
Apple has finally admitted that a man named Kane Kramer invented the technology behind the iPod in 1979. Mr. Kramer invented the device when he was 23 years old. It was called the IXI and it stored only 3.5 minutes of music on a chip at the time, but Kramer knew the idea has potential, and would expand over time. He sketched out a credit card sized player with a rectangular screen and a set of menu buttons centrally located in the center of the lower portion of the device. It's not hard to see that this looks very similar to an iPod. He took out a worldwide patent and set up a company to develop his idea, but in 1988 after a boardroom split, he was unable to raise the £60,000 to renew his patents across 120 countries. As a result the technology became public property. Apple has been tangled in a legal battle with Burst.com over the iPod, and Apple used Mr. Kramer's patents and drawings as a defense in the case. Mr. Kramer even helped them out by testifying on their behalf. After Mr. Kramer's testimony, the case was settled quietly out of court. Apple did pay Mr. Kramer a consultancy fee for providing his expertise in the legal case, and they are currently negotiating with Mr. Kramer to gain some compensation from the copyrights that he owns on the drawings that clearly inspired the iPod. Frankly, I think they need to hand over a few million dollars to this guy and set him up for life. It's a shame that he couldn't raise the capital to keep his patents in the late 80s. If he had, who knows how things would be different today. Still, I think it would be a sign of good will on Apple's part to give this guy the credit he deserves. Obviously he didn't completely design the iPod, and had nothing to do with the software that runs the devices, so there is plenty there that Apple contributed to making the thing a success, but throwing a few million this guy's way for laying the ground work isn't out of the question. You can read more about it here, and you can visit Mr. Kramer's official site right here.
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Swedish Apple promotional art goes up for sale
Swedish artist Erik Saxen is looking to sell a series of Mac SE promotional paintings to collectors or museums. Painted in 1987 for the Mac SE's launch in Sweden, the six oil and mixed media paintings are in the style of other artists, but feature the Mac SE, and were used for newspaper and poster campaigns. Read More...
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BestBuy starts selling iPhones, do you buy it?
Filed under: Retail, iPhoneIf you are looking for an iPhone 3G to spend your money on (and who isn't), look no further than your local BestBuy. Last night, BestBuy stores around the country started selling their newly acquired stock of iPhone 3Gs. This deal between Apple and the big-box giant was most likely a strategy to relieve the long waits at AT&T/Apple Stores.We at TUAW do have a question: Does this change your iPhone buying habits? Will you buy an iPhone at BestBuy, or will you continue to buy at the Apple Store? We want to know, so take part in our poll and chat about in the comments. Thanks to everyone who sent this in!View PollRead|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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Latest Mac OS X 10.5.5 build narrows issues for testing
On the heels of previous beta releases, Apple seeded another 10.5.5 build to testers on Friday. This time, developers are only being asked to test half the components from previous builds, suggesting the update is closer to release.Read More...
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News: iLounge to offer live coverage of 'Let's Rock' event
iLounge will be on-site at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco to provide live coverage of Apple's “Let's Rock” special event. Apple is widely expected to announce new iPods at the event, which is scheduled to begin at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time tomorrow. As we have done in the past, iLounge.com will take you to our streamlined special event page starting an hour or so before the event. ...
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News: Apple preps site of 'Let's Rock' event
Apple has begun on-site preparations for tomorrow's “Let's Rock” special event. The event, scheduled to begin at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time, is being held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. According to Cult of Mac, the building has already been covered on one side by a large silhouette iPod poster matching the image seen on the event invitation, and Apple security guards have been spotted watching over each…
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Disservice to partners may bite Apple
The Mac maker does many things right, but partner management is not one of them. Delays in App Store updates and general lack of communication is frustrating developers.
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Mac 101: Create Custom Email Stationery
Filed under: Mac 101 Have you used Mail's stationery and thought that it was too limiting or did not appeal to your tastes? With a simple save button, you can create your own stationery to be exactly the way you want it. Just create a new Mail message, filling in the body as you see fit -- use special formatting, colors, even filler text. When you have completed your stationery template, click File > Save As Stationery. A dialog box will prompt you to name your new creation. Enter a descriptive title and click "Save." Your new stationery will appear under "Custom" whenever you click the "Show Stationery" button in a new mail message. Clicking your template name will automatically recreate your template in the body of the new message. This is handy for businesses or individuals who need to have custom formatted emails, and need them to be uniform each time they send them.Like this tip? Want more? Just visit TUAW's Mac 101 section.Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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Musinaut introduces new MXP4 digital audio format
Posted by Dennis SellersWatch out, partner. There's a new music format in town. Musinaut, a Paris-based company, today unveiled MXP4, a new digital audio format where song downloads from the Internet will contain multiple variations or “skins” embedded in one music file to give music fans a choice of song mixes or “skins”...
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Apple admits Brit invented iPod
Posted by Dennis SellersAn ongoing battle to find out who is the original inventor of the technology behind the Apple iPod has come to a head, with Apple “admitting”who the original inventor is, reports TechRadar.
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iLovePhotos lets Mac users manage photos using facial detection technology
Posted by Dennis SellersiLovePhotos has launched a way for Mac users to effortlessly manage and share their photos using facial detection technology. iLovePhotos is a new photo community that integrates facial detection, tagging, auto sharing, and intelligent, portable slideshow creation and distribution.
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Another (clearer) iPod nano 4G leaked photo
This time courtesy of Engadget.
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Another reason for Apple to add DVR features to the Apple TV
Posted by Dennis SellersMany folks (Yours Truly included) Apple should add digital video recorder (DVR) functionality to the Apple TV. Here's another reason this should be considered: more than 80 percent of Americans say that they can't live without a DVR, according to a new survey of DVR owners commissioned by NDS, a...
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'Spore Origins' Headlines New Batch of EA Games for iPhone, iPod
Just as PC gamers in the U.S. and Canada are about to lay hands on the full version of "Spore," Will Wright's latest creation, Electronic Arts announced Friday that a moblie version of the game is coming to the iPhone and iPod touch. As with "Spore," "Spore Origins" puts gamers in the middle of a world where it is either eat or be eaten. The game takes players on a journey through an environment comprised solely of primordial ooze. As they devour weaker creatures and run from stronger predators, gamers move through two modes and 35 levels.
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Say Where brings voice recognition to iPhone apps
Forthcoming iPhone app from Dial Directions aims to give users a way to get information from sites like Yelp, MapQuest and others by speaking instead of typing.
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New iPhone app helps users find healthy food near them
A service called Mealsearch from startup WebDiet is designed to, among other things, give users a way to find restaurants near them that meet their dietary criteria.
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Apple looks to revive that special event magic
Tuesday's event should give Apple a strong iPod lineup to sell during the holiday season, so long as the company puts a buggy couple of months behind it with the new products.
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RealDVD rips DVDs just like you do, only legally (maybe)
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets RealNetworks, the company you love to hate, is back with a new product sure to capture the attention of Hollywood and its MPAA thugs. For $30, RealDVD plans to do what DVD Jon enabled years ago -- namely, making digital copies of your DVDs. Unlike Jon's illegal DRM stripping software, RealNetworks' approach lays on additional DRM allowing you to make a single copy, only, playable on the machine doing the rip -- up to five additional Windows PCs can be authorized at a cost of $20 per. Real thinks that the use of the additional DRM coupled with Kaleidescape's legal victory -- a ruling that seemingly authorizes users to copy DVDs for their own personal use -- will help it escape the wrath of the MPAA. Not that RealNetworks has ever been afraid of a fight as demonstrated by its 2004 scuffle with Apple when it began offering software that allowed iPods to play Real's DRM'd content. Good thing too because we're pretty sure that shutting down the planned start of RealDVD's sales at the end of this month is the number one topic around the bunny-juice dispensers at the MPAA offices this morning. [Via cnet]Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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Busiest week in months on tap at 'The MUG Event Calendar'
Posted by Dennis SellersThe busiest week in months is on tap at “The MUG Event Calendar” with a host of special guest speakers, road show appearances and a broad range of topics.
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The Mac Night Owl: '24 years using Macs'
Posted by Dennis SellersOn today's commentary, Gene “Mac Night Owl” Steinberg looks at “24 years using Macs.”
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Sony launches "Designed for Walkman" program -- accessory manufacturers point, laugh
Filed under: Peripherals, Portable Audio, Portable VideoSony Corp just announced its new "Designed for Walkman" accessory program in a bid to boost third-party accessory development. Under the terms, any vendor that signs up gets full access to the specs for Sony's proprietary WM-PORT terminal... about 3.5 years too late. In return, licensees can prominently display this fancy, "Designed for Walkman" logo on their packaging and products as they grab for a slice of the meager accessory revenues made possible by the 4th place MP3 manufacturer owning just 2% market share. Hot Sony, hot.Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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To Do Is: Fix To-Dos
Creating a Smart Mailbox in Mail can automatically filter your To Dos for you. I’m trying to wrap my head around the new To Do feature in Leopard’s Mail. In iCal, I can hide any To Dos that have already been completed or haven’t arrived yet. But in Mail, it lists all of my To Dos, even if they’re completed or they’re from the future. Plus, it doesn’t show me the notes I’ve typed in for each To Do. Annoying! read more
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Mac OS Ken: 09.08.2008
ATR Analyst Predicts Nothing But iPod for âLetâs Rockâ / Macworld: Whatever Is Announced Tuesday Better Work Right Off / Apple CFO: No Ceiling for Macs Worldwide / Third Carrier Picks Up iPhone in Russia / Dell Eyes Design for Future Wares / WSJ: Dell Seeks to Sell Factories, Shift to Contract Manufacturers / Apple Emails About âSpore Originâ for Click-Wheel Trouble / Electronic Arts: âSporeâ for iPhone âLater This Monthâ / Report: App Store Rejects âPull My Fingerâ / Apple Authorized Resellers and Google AdWord Ugliness / Tennessee iPod Wearer Struck and Killed by Train / Paul Weller: iTunes Killed the B-Side / Beatles Music News and Speculation (Again) / Wired: Jobs Not Writing Jobs Emails
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Nolobe Iris
The Help dialog sums up our thoughts on this turkey. Click image to embiggen. read more