Oct 27, 2008 Oct 29, 2008 Tuesday October 28, 2008
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Things
When you are done with an item, just tap the box next to the title—this will clear the item from your list.read more
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FireWire-to-USB cable, Windows-only for now
In Apple's drive to differentiate its professional and less-professional notebook lines, the company left out support for FireWire on its new Aluminum MacBook. While some Mac sites are pointing to composite video-transfer boxes as a way to get video from a camera to the MacBook, there is at least one FireWire-to-USB bridge cable on the market for transferring video.
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Firefox Getting Multi-Touch Gestures?
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TAB Welcomes: Clayton Lai
Hi everyone, from the little red dot known as Singapore! I have a confession to make: I am a recent switcher. Being in the broadcast and advertising industry, I have always been surrounded by Macs. Just about every one—from production companies to advertising agencies to postproduction facilities—uses Macs. But, for whatever reasons I cannot for my life recall now, it never occurred to me to make the switch; I was pretty happy with Windows XP and the Sony VAIO TR5 ultra-portable it ran on. I was in the minority; I was John Hodgman. Fast-forward to mid-2007. One fine day in May, I received word through the grapevine that someone was letting go of a seven-month-old MacBook Pro 17″ (Core Duo, 1GB RAM and 120GB HDD) in mint condition. The price was too attractive to ignore. A couple of days later, I sat in front of that MacBook Pro and realized, for the first time, what it must be like to discover an advanced civilization on another planet. Coming from an entrenched power user who had squeezed Windows for all of its worth, for me to say that the Mac experience was a profound life experience is no small praise. I am never going back. Until the day when, somehow, my Mac gets pried from my cold, dead fingers, you can find me on my MacBook Pro more than I should, writing about everything Mac, instead of being out there chasing the light as a photographer, on a shooting set making television commercials, or working on my first feature film. I'm honored to be part of The Apple Blog and I look forward to your feedback and comments!
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BlackBerry Fund Plants Its First Seeds
The BlackBerry Partners Fund, a rival to the iFund for supporting new mobile-phone applications, has made its first three investments.
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Apple Co-Founder Wozniak Turns To Acting
The Pirate of Woz With the abrupt end of Bill Gates's recent promotional tête à  tete with Seinfeld, there's clearly a comedy void left somewhere in the galaxy. Fortunately, Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, may be just the right shape to fill that void and restore equilibrium. Though far from scraping the bottom of the tech-celebrity barrel by endorsing a lackluster product, Woz is actually promoting Scott Jordan's ScotteVest apparel. There are currently two webisodes up, the first finds the big guy doing a spot of fishing (using an iPod for bait) and the second one is a nonsensical Star Wars spoof which seemingly has nothing to do with the ScotteVest products. There's definitely a smart idea behind the ScotteVest range — the apparel is designed for guy and girl geeks specifically, the kind of folk who carry tons of digital gadgetry and gizmos. We're talking jackets and hoodies with pockets to hold an array of essential gadgets (including an awesome feature called CollarConnectâ„¢ that runs your headphone wires through the clothing for maximum efficiency). With such attention to detail, it's clear as to why Woz — with his awful yet wonderfully endearing style of acting — would appear in a ScotteVest advert. Head on over to the ScotteVest website to check out Steve Wozniak's adverts now.
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Review: Classics lets you touch your books on your iPhone (Updated)
Classics is an upcoming book reader for iPhone and iPod touch that attempts to recreate an authentic reading experience with a rich, unobtrusive UI and a literal "tactile page flip" effect. Ars spoke with Classics' co-creator, then curled up with a good... iPhone.Read More...
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Comment Contest: Favorite iPhone App Edition
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★ The Richard Solo iPhone/iPod Backup Battery
If you read my iPhone 3G review, you know that my biggest complaint was with regard to battery life. The problem isn’t that the iPhone’s battery life is poor compared to other similarly-featured phones. The problem is that the iPhone pushes the limits of modern battery technology — what makes the iPhone great is that it can do so much, but doing that much consumes significant power. There’s an obvious trade-off between battery size/weight and battery life. I would actually pay more for an iPhone that was thicker and heavier but provided longer battery life. I don’t think Apple should offer such a device (insofar as there are obvious benefits to maintaining the simplicity of the product line by offering only one form factor), just that if they were to offer such a device, I’d have bought it. Most days, when I go to bed my iPhone still has plenty of gas in the tank. The problem strikes on the days when I go commando — foregoing my MacBook Pro and using my iPhone as my sole connection to the Internet for the day. I no longer lug my laptop with me when attending a conference, for example. I’ve found that the only way to make it through an entire day like this is to find a way to recharge the iPhone at some point. However, the days when I’m going commando are, by definition, the days when I’m least likely to be anchored near an AC outlet for extended periods. Several peripheral makers now make external battery packs that fill this need. The basic idea is that the battery pack holds an extended charge, and when you need it, you plug it into your iPhone (or iPod) via the dock connector port. Back in August I bought the $50 Richard Solo Backup Battery. I ordered it directly from their web site. It’s fairly small and holds a decent-sized charge. You can see that it’s sort of a dongle that, when connected to the iPhone, hangs off the bottom. The other competing design concept for iPhone battery packs is to make them in the form of an iPhone case — something the iPhone sits inside rather than something that hangs off the bottom. Mophie’s Juice Pack seems to be the leading example of this. I chose the Richard Solo dongle for two reasons: it’s far easier to keep in a pocket when not in use, and (b) it was half the price ($50 vs. $100). A third advantage is that the battery dongles should work with any iPhone or iPod — the integrated battery/cases only work with single specific iPhone models. Here’s how it works. The Richard Solo Backup Battery comes with its own AC adapter. You connect the battery to the AC adapter via an included compact USB cord that plugs into the bottom of the battery. Left like this, the battery will charge. But you can also plug the battery’s dock connector into your iPhone while charging — in this case, the iPhone’s internal battery will charge first, and then the Richard Solo battery will charge. Thus, when traveling, you only need to bring the Solo AC adapter. In practice, the Richard Solo Backup Battery seems to hold enough juice to add about 50-60 percent of a charge to an iPhone 3G. I.e. after running down the iPhone’s internal battery to the point where I got the “10 percent” warning from the OS, plugging in the Richard Solo Backup Battery and letting it charge the iPhone will restore it to somewhere around 70 percent capacity. It seems to take about an hour for a complete discharge. You can also use it to slurp occasionally — plug it in for 15 minutes here and there throughout the day. And you can use the iPhone while the battery pack is plugged in — from the iPhone’s perspective, it’s just another power source connected to the dock port. Is it an amazing amount of external battery power? No. But it certainly feels like $50 worth, and the power capacity seems commensurate with the physical size. And in my experience, it provides just enough extra power to make it through a heavy day of iPhone use. My biggest complaint is that it ships with a junky plastic cap to cover the dock connector. It didn’t snap on very tightly even when brand new, and within a week or two, it started falling off while in my pocket. Earlier this month while on vacation, I lost it. You don’t need the cap, but it somehow seems wrong to have the naked dock connector bouncing around in my pocket. A better design would be for the dock connector to be retractable, sort of like the blade on a box cutter. Minor niggles include the supplied USB cable being too short, it being a little hard to tell at a glance which side of the battery is up, and a somewhat confusing array of LED lights that indicate when the battery is charging and when it is giving a charge. The bottom line, though, is that it’s the next best thing to having an iPhone with a longer-lasting internal battery.
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Psystar adds Blu-ray, Mac users yawn
Psystar doesn't agree with Apple CEO Steve Jobs that Blu-ray is "a bag of hurt," but decision to offer Blu-ray drives on Mac OS Open Computers doesn't accomplish much.
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Glenn Fleishman Reviews Google’s Android G1 Phone
I’ve had a slew of G1 reviews sitting around in browser tabs for a week. Fleishman seems to nail the consensus: The G1 would come off much better if it wasn’t competing with the 3G iPhone and iPhone OS 2.1. ★
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Demand for iPhone Developers Up 500%
The SDK and the success of the App Store have combined to create an emerging professional category, that of iPhone application developer. According to oDesk, a technology outsourcer billing itself as the “leading marketplace and global IT platform for outsourcing technology jobs to certified, freelance, Apple iPhone developers”, demand has risen for iPhone-related positions from 30 to upwards of 140 jobs per month over the past six months. While the numbers are drawn from internal oDesk records only, such a steep increase is unlikely to be an isolated phenomenon. Nor is oDesk's sample pool a limited one, since they have representation in over 100 countries worldwide, including major markets like the U.S. and China. (more…)
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Adobe's John Nack joins Woz and others to judge art contest
The digital art contest at the 2009 Macworld Expo will be judged by Photoshop product manager John Nack, celebrity engineer Steve Wozniak, artist Peter Max, and SF MoMA curator Rudolf Frieling. Entries are only being accepted for a few more days, so hurry up. Read More...
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Cruz 0.1
New WebKit-based browser by Todd Ditchendorf, the creator of Fluid. Includes an open plugin architecture for extending the app, and Greasemonkey-style user scripting. Ambitious and interesting. Be sure to check out the demo videos. ★
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Psystar introduces Blu-ray bag of hurt to its Mac clones
Psystar don't care 'bout no lawsuit. The company announced today that Blu-ray is now part of its Mac clone offerings before Apple gets to introduce it, in addition to NVIDIA's 9800GT graphics cards.Read More...
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Apple Gazette Daily 374 - Mac Mini rumor, New Games, iPhone and more!
podcast sponsor link:Click Here to check out Blogflux Groups! Today's Show: Mac Mini rumor, New Games, iPhone 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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Myvu video eyewear now iPhone compatible for $25 more
If you have been longing to watch "private" videos on your iPhone without anyone else bugging you, you can finally use the offerings from Myvu thanks to a "Works with iPhone" cable introduced today. Read More...
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Rogers sells 255k iPhones, adds 191k subscribers
Filed under: iPhoneRogers Wireless sold 255,000 iPhones since their introduction in July, and added 191,000 new customers, according to Electronista. Desjardins Securities analyst Joseph MacKay estimates that Rogers will have to absorb subsidies for all those new customers -- two out of five who bought the iPhone -- adding about C$90 million in costs for the quarter. Over the three-year contract period, however, MacKay figures Rogers will do much better, as the average monthly bill for Rogers customers will be about C$100 (thanks to higher costs for iPhone plans), up from C$74 now. Since Rogers is the only major GSM carrier in Canada, it said a third of its customers moved from another carrier, or had no mobile service before. Both Bell Canada and Telus had lower new subscriber numbers for the quarter. Like Verizon in the United States, Bell Canada and Telus are planning on upgrading their networks to LTE, a fourth-generation mobile phone standard that AT&T will also support. [Via AppleInsider.]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Change Notes Font On iPhone/iPod touch
I really, really detest the Market Felt typeface used in the Notes application in the iPod touch and iPhone. It is hard to read, hard to edit points into, and looks plain childish. Fortunately, I stumbled upon a way to easily have your notes displayed with Arial. And, no, you do not need FontSwap, jailbreaking or any complicated deep system maneuvering. All you need is right there in the iPhone OS. For this walkthrough I am using a second-generation iPod touch with firmware version 2.1.1 loaded. This also works with the iPhone. (more…)
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Is it any wonder the iPhone's USB Power Adapters fell apart? ''Shocking'' photos.
Last month, Apple announced the Apple Ultracompact USB Power Adapter Exchange Program in which it admitted that the adapters supplied with iPhone 3G and sold separately could "under certain conditions" lose its metal prongs in your wall power outlet, creating a risky situation for you as you try to remove them. At the time, Apple claimed to have received reports of detached prongs on "a very small percentage of the adapters sold", but looking at these pictures of a dissected USB Power Adapter I can't image how the instances of "prong failure" could be anything less than commonplace. Depicted here, the prongs only extend into the adapter about 1/8 of an inch and are held in place with some type of glue and a bit of wishful thinking. Nice work. If you haven't sent your Ultracompact USB Power Adapter in for an exchange, please, do it today.
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Reconstructing Apple’s 2008 Earnings to Reflect iPhone Sales
Andy Zaky on Apple’s share price, and how most mainstream financial analysts don’t seem to grok the implications of Apple’s use of subscription-based accounting for the iPhone: Right away, one ought to notice the staggering growth rate in both revenue and earnings that Apple displayed in 2008. Apple’s real revenue grew 54.5% from $24.637 billion in FYE 2007 to $38.041 billion in FYE 2008 — a full $13.4 billion growth in revenues. Even more impressive is Apple’s 81.2% growth rate in adjusted net income. For a company that is trading at 12 times 2008 earnings, it doesn’t take a genius to conclude that Apple is severely undervalued. Especially since Apple currently trades at about 3.37 times its cash position — which is objectively and significantly lower than every other large cap tech company. GOOG trades at 7.18 times its cash position, RIMM at 15.51 times cash, AMZN at 9.15 times cash, MSFT at 9.13 times cash, CSCO at 3.62 times cash, IBM at 10.96 times cash, INTC at 6.54 times cash, and HPQ at 5.15 times cash. What is more, only GOOG, AAPL and MSFT have no debt of the companies mentioned above. Apple has the largest net cash position than any of those companies and Apple has more net cash than RIMM, GOOG, AMZN and IBM combined. ★
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Article: iPhone Gems: Ten Noteworthy Social Networking Apps
One of the biggest developments on the Internet in the last five years is the rise and proliferation of social networking; the idea of linking your real-world friends to your online affairs has become increasingly mainstream, with leading networks now boasting over 100 million user accounts. Larger, older networks today face challenges from a new generation of networking sites—services that leverage the power of location-aware, Internet-enabled…
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First Looks: H2O Audio iDive 300 Deep Dive Waterproof Case + Speakers
As H2O Audio's most significant iPod accessory to date, the iDive 300 ($350) is a deep dive waterproof case and speaker system for use with 2005-2007 iPods, as well as newer models if you're willing to wait on additional rubber inserts. The plastic case uses a new locking system with a cam knob to safely seal itself against water intrusion, promising waterproof protection down to 300 feet depth. You're able to use buttons on the case's side to control…
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Rumor roundup: iPhone 2.2 firmware details
Filed under: Rumors, iPhoneApple has given developers a taste of the new iPhone firmware, version 2.2 beta 2, and it includes a host of spiffy new features that are making the rounds online. A tipster shared with us some screenshots of the new firmware, including what appears to be the ability to download podcasts directly to your iPhone (and presumably your iPod touch). This could tidily explain why Apple rejected the Podcaster app last month. The option to "get more episodes" doesn't appear to work in this firmware build, however. MacRumors' Arnold Kim links to an iPhoneHellas.gr screenshot showing the iPhone software asking for a rating before you delete an application. Kim speculates Apple is looking to increase participation in the App Store rating process. Om Malik's Apple Blog is showing off screenshots from the iPhoneYap.com message boards, including new Maps functionality. Google Street View will apparently be available by rotating the device into landscape mode. Public transportation support and directions for walking also seem to be included. In the same report, the Apple Blog's David Appleyard also mentions location sharing via email and SDK support for manipulating line-in audio as part of the seed.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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iPhones not on House 'must-have' list
Speed trumps accuracy once again, as a report last week that Congress is considering switching its BlackBerrys for iPhones turns out to be quite the exaggeration.
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Rainer Brockerhoff on the New MacBooks
Sounds about right to me: Now, of course, there’s a sizable contingent of users who want Pro features at consumer prices, and want Apple’s designers to produce such a miracle every time. These “prosumers” are also prone to think that the “real” Macs are the high-end ones, but that Apple then maliciously cuts features from them to produce the low-end machines; call it the conspiracy theory of hardware design. While I can’t say with certainty that this never happened in the past (remember the Performa days?), it’s very unlikely in this specific case; the MacBook is not a crippled MacBook Pro. Indeed, indications are that, surprise, the MacBook Pro is really an expanded MacBook. ★
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Reconstructing Apple Earnings, Including iPhone
Now that Apple (AAPL) has reported its earnings for the full 2008 fiscal year, I think it's important for investors to focus on how Apple would have performed if it fully recognized the revenue and earnings from its sales of the iPhone. Apple's true 2008 financial results have been hitherto veiled under a shroud of financial secrecy that I set out to finally irrevocably uncover, since Wall Street analysts apparently cannot do their jobs. Someone needs to put an end to this nonsense and if not the analysts, then it's up to the investment community to make such determinations on their own. The Apple earnings confusion has largely been the result of Apple's relatively (un)complicated subscription method of accounting for sales of the iPhone. Most analysts seem to be either thoroughly lazy, or genuinely perplexed by this fairly simple concept; and so I thought I might make their jobs a little easier by reconstructing Apple's 2008 earnings results to reflect what Apple actually earned in 2008. After reviewing several research notes by analysts for the months of September and October, it doesn't surprise me one bit that "the analysts are at the bottom of the s**t heap" or "at the lowest level of the investment banking hierarchy" as described by John Rolfe and Peter Troob in Monkey Business.
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Apple releases free Mac management white paper
Filed under: Education, Apple Professional, Mac OS X ServerAn email is being sent from Apple to education customers this morning, offering a free white paper on Mac management. Entitled "Solutions for Systems Management," the paper can be accessed by entering your school's name and zip code on a special web page.It includes solid, basic information on assessment of your school's needs, deployment of a solution and even a solution's typical lifespan. Apple products are featured, of course, like Apple Remote Desktop and Mac OS X Server, but the paper also describes some third-party products like Deep Freeze and K2 Key Auditor and Key Server.It's certainly not the definitive paper on being a Mac-friendly administrator, but a decent reference. You can find out more about deploying Mac OS X in education contexts from the indispensable Macenterprise and AFP548 sites.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Focus Is on iPhone as Canada's Telecom Sector Enters Earnings Season
Earnings season for Canada's telecom players kicks off Tuesday and much of the focus is on the impact of Apple Inc.'s (AAPL) iPhone.Rogers Communications Inc. (RCI), which released the iPhone 3G on July 11, is first to report third quarter results to the end of September. While the launch has caused some short-term pain, Rogers should reap the long-term benefits such as a three-year contract term, lower customer turnover and higher revenues, Desjardins Securities analyst Joseph MacKay said in a research note. For example, average revenue per user should climb to C$100 a month compared with roughly C$74 now.
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Can Apple, Gilead and the Hot Techs Keep Growing?
Amid the roiling waters of the stock market and economy, which have tossed tech investors around for weeks, Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs made a special guest appearance on Apple's fourth-quarter earnings call Oct. 21 to try to calm things down. Profits soared on knockout iPhone numbers and strong Mac and iPod sales. But Jobs wanted to make a point broader than any one quarter's results: Apple planned to seize the opportunity of these difficult times to bolt ahead of the competition. He pointed out that Apple has nearly $25 billion in the bank.
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iPhone as a Laptop Replacement
The Wall Street Journal published an article yesterday highlighting how mobile phone technology is beginning to reach the stage where a laptop is no longer necessary. For years, mobile workers have been ditching their desktop computers for laptops that they can take wherever they go. Now road warriors are starting to realize that they can get even more portability — and lots of computing punch — from smart phones. It raises some interesting points, which are worth considering in relation to Apple and the iPhone. The Changing Use of Computers One point which seems to have a great deal of validity is the idea that travelers are now ditching their desktops in favor of laptops, and using their smartphone to achieve what was previously done on a laptop. While this doesn't hold true for everyone, it is a trend which seems to be slowly emerging. With the iPhone, Apple has taken an authoritative position in this new market — a notion backed up with statistics: In a survey of 460 iPhone users from March by Rubicon Consulting Inc., more than 28% of respondents strongly agreed and 29% mildly agreed when asked whether the iPhone was replacing their use of laptops. (more…)
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Rogers Q3 results show iPhone boom in the great white North
Though the market is smaller than the US, Rogers has announced sales comparable to AT&T's this past quarter, racking up 255,000 iPhone activations.Read More...
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News: Mix: Rogers, Wal-Mart, iPhone 2.2, Credit Card, David Cook
Reporting its third quarter financial results, Canadian iPhone carrier Rogers revealed that it activated around 255,000 iPhone 3Gs in the quarter. The activations, about one-third of which were new subscribers, helped the company post an 84 percent boost in quarterly profit. Overall, the company added 191,000 new subscribers during the quarter. Wal-Mart has re-launched its DRM-free MP3 downloads store, with select top songs available for as little…
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Article: iPhone Gems: Photo Comparison, Space + Airplane Games
This week, iLounge's editors are rounding up a number of iPhone and iPod touch games and apps that we've really liked, but haven't been able to shoehorn into neat comparative reviews with other releases. Yesterday, we looked at Google Earth, a puzzler called Spin, and a quarter-bouncing game called Beer Bounce. Today's iPhone Gems looks at two genres of titles, starting with two photo comparison games, then moving on to six…
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RIM Faces a Critical Month As Apple Gets Tough
Apple (AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs made it quite clear what company he wants to upend: Research in Motion (RIMM). The next month will tell if RIM's response will be enough to silence the recently chatty Jobs. In fact, some analysts speculate that the next month will dictate RIM's performance in 2009 (and possibly beyond). The issue: RIM is launching a bevy of devices–notably the Bold and Storm (right)–that will either fuel a product cycle that will launch the company into new markets. Or RIM will go for the brass ring and miss. There may be some wiggle room for an in-between performance, but RIM is clearly going for it. The big question: Will RIM's arsenal of devices catapult the company and Blackberry platform to the next level?
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ActionGear, simple yet powerful task management
Filed under: Software, ProductivityActionGear has been out for a while, but I think it deserves a mention as a potentially great task-management app, falling somewhere between iCal or a bare bones outliner such as TaskPaper, and the robust end of the scale where Things and OmniFocus are duking it out. Within ActionGear's simple interface, you'll find a sidebar with your Inbox, (nestable) Groups, and Smart Groups. The main focus of the interface is a task list in which tasks can be nested within their groups (folders). Each task can have flags, notes and attachments, and there's a tagging system which allows Things-like flexibility. You can use it as a basic to-do list, or make the Groups into projects and tags into contexts and go all GTD with it. The Smart Groups can emulate, to some extent, the Perspectives you'd find in OmniFocus. Overall it seems like a good solution for those who need a little more structure and power in their task management than what can be done with iCal, but don't really need all of the extra features of OmniFocus. If that's you, give ActionGear a shot with the free trial. If you dig it, it's $29USD for a license.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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CoverScout Gets Major Overhaul for New Release
One member of the "Trio of Album Artwork Utilities for iTunes" that I wrote about three weeks ago was CoverScout. Because there were some minor "misunderstandings" between this software and iTunes 8, I was expecting an update that would fix these issues, and that update came out last Friday. Little did I know, however, that the developers were working on a new major release of the software, as well!
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Choosy, your new default browser
Filed under: Software, Cool tools It plays out like a Harlequin Romance for many a Mac user (especially web designers and developers): you have a fairly solid relationship with Safari, on a day-to-day basis. Despite your admiration for Safari's beauty and speed, though, the siren song of Firefox frequently seduces you away for extended romps, tempting you with a bounty of desirable extensions and themes. Personally, I've just decided to make my relationship polygamous, Safari for browsing, Firefox for web development. The rub, though, is in the definition of the system's default browser; for me, there's no winning that war. I'm constantly launching browsers unintentionally, wishing my Mac would just figure out which application I want to handle a link with at any given time. George Brocklehurst has a solution, though, and I'm loving it. Choosy is a Preference Pane (and accompanying helper application) which takes the place of the default browser. When you click a link anywhere outside of a web browser, it takes action based on your preferences: you can have it open the link in whatever browser is running (defaulting to your favorite browser if nothing is open), or you can have it always display a choice of browsers, among other configuration options. I set mine up to display the menu of browser icons every time, thereby ending the unintentional application-launching which stems from my need for multiple browsers. Choosy is in beta, and it's got some issues. The biggest for me is its inability to handle multiple displays. That, along with every other question I had about its future development, is already laid out in the development roadmap. Choosy will be a paid application once it's out of beta, but beta testers who provide George with an email address will be getting a code for a beta tester discount. If your own browser infidelity is causing problems for you, give Choosy a try. Fair warning, by the way: If you install Minefield, you'll lose Firefox from your Choosy browser list until you uninstall it. The ability to customize the browser list is on the roadmap (and there is a workaround -- editing the CFBundleIdentifier in Firefox's Info.plist to a unique value -- but that's not for the fainthearted), so hopefully that will soon be a non-issue. Thanks LaurieRead | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Witch 2 - Switch to any open window
Developer: ManyTricks / Product Page Price: €9.95 [$12.35 as of 10/28/08] SharewareThis week's Pick of the Week is actually a rerun. Back in 2005, Witch was very new, and very welcomed -- it was the first program I'd found that let me switch windows, instead of just switching between applications. Over the years, I've come to rely on Witch quite heavily. Unfortunately, the release of 10.5 caused some issues for Witch -- nothing critical, but (for instance) some annoying repetitive log entries.Witch 2.0 (now up to 2.0.1) fixed those problems, and added one nifty new feature -- you can use (and display, if you wish) "shortcut" badge icons on your first 10 open windows. So I can switch to any window by pressing Op...
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10.5: Disable Spotlight during Time Machine backups
I am using Time Machine with a Western Digital MyBook World, and had the hardest time getting it to make backups (even incremental ones of only a few megabytes) with reasonable speed. Apart from having to turn off any virus scanner, Spotlight tried to index the backup drive, which made it unbearably slow. I was not able to add the backup mount to the Privacy tab in the Spotlight System Preferences panel -- neither with the preferences pane, nor with any mdutil commands.So I had to turn it off whenever I was doing the backup with this command:launchctl unload /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plistAfter the backup had finished, I then reloaded the daemon. If you want to use Spotlight and scheduled backups, this is not really practical. So I found a blunt force method that works to me. First, a daemon runs a script every minute to...
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Use GeekTool/curl/perl to watch sale web pages
I frequently watch "one thing at a time" sale pages such as Chainlove for good deals on (in my case) cycling gear. These sites sell only one thing at a time, at fairly steep discounts, until the item is gone, then they move to the next thing. This site provides software to let you know when new things come up for sale, but it's Windows-only. They also provide an RSS feed, which is slow enough that I get notifications about the latest sale just after it's over.GeekTool/curl/perl to the rescue: The Chainlove site changes the title to the page each time they put something new up. This command uses curl to grab the chainlove.com page and send it to perl, which searches for the title tags and prints out whatever is between those tags:curl -s www.chainlove.com | perl -nle 'print for m:(.*):'I then use GeekTool to run tha...
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Box.net iPhone app takes your files mobile, laughs at iDisk
Box.net is a handy web-based file sharing service with lots of social media features. Apple's iPhone is a... well, you know. Now, Box.net and iPhone get along better than ever, though some Mac users may not be able to store all their files with the service.Read More...
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Fission 1.6 makes iPhone ringtones even easier
Filed under: Audio, Software, iPhoneRogue Amoeba has released version 1.6 of the nifty lossless audio editor Fission with a handy new feature: built-in iPhone ringtone saving. Fission has always been a great application for making relatively simple edits to audio files: cropping, trimming, cutting and pasting, etc. Now it makes turning MP3, AAC, AIFF, Apple Lossless, or WAV files into iPhone ringtones a one-step process. Once you save a file as a ringtone it will automatically be passed to iTunes for syncing to your iPhone.Of course you can do it the old-fashioned way with GarageBand, but if your audio file just needs simple editing the Fission method will likely be easier and faster. In addition to the ringtone saving (and various bug fixes), version 1.6 allows you to insert periods of silence into a file and exactly set the location of the playhead.Fission 1.6 is a free upgrade to registered owners; it's $32 for new users and a demo is available.[via Macworld]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Documents To Go Coming to iPhone
For those of us who at one time depended on a Palm device for our pocket computing needs, Documents To Go is a familiar name. The program, which was eventually bundled with new Palm devices, allowed users to access and edit Microsoft Office documents on the Palm OS. A new teaser at Documents To Go developer Dataviz's site suggests that the program will soon make the leap to the iPhone. To date, no app has enabled Office document editing on Apple's iPhone, although many offer the ability to view them. There are also a number of rich-text editing applications, and some that allow creation and editing of spreadsheets. Office support is offered natively on the BlackBerry platform, so were the iPhone to gain editing capability, it might make the decision to switch easier for enterprise buyers. (more…)
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Options Trader: Tuesday Outlook - Turnaround?
We are way up in pre-market trading (200 points at 7 am). Yesterday was a crazy day and at 1:37 (after a very good morning of bottom fishing), with the Dow at 8,550 I had to warn members: "Don't forget that if you were crying this morning when the pre-markets were down 300 points, this is a good opportunity to add some downside protection! Watch the 2.5% line on the Dow and 900 on the S&P and you can stop out or cover on the bear side, but we need more volume and more reason to put a real rally together." That was good timing as the Dow dropped 400 points into the close from there but, much like we weren't buying the rally - we weren't going for the last leg of the drop either, which we decided looked a little forced at the end.
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News: Myvu Crystal receives 'Works with iPhone' certification
Myvu has announced that its Myvu Crystal wearable video display has received “Works with iPhone” certification for both the original iPhone and iPhone 3G. Compatibility is provided via a new iPhone-compatible cable, which is now available on Myvu's website for $25. Released this past May, Myvu Crystal features VGA resolution, Kopin’s CyberDisplay technology, a rechargeable battery with up to four hours of viewing time, earbuds…
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News: Sonos debuts Controller app for iPhone, iPod touch
Sonos, maker of wireless multi-room music systems, has announced the release of its new Sonos Controller application for the iPhone. This free application allows iPhone, iPhone 3G, and iPod touch users to control the Sonos Multi-Room Music System directly from their device over Wi-Fi. Controller lets users control the entire Sonos system, allowing them to quickly link and unlink rooms, select, play, pause, and skip music in any room, search for artists…
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Maccast 2008.10.28
A podcast about all things Macintosh. For Mac geeks, by Mac geeks. Show 242. Apple continues to shine in Q4. New Mac vs PC ads jab Microsoft's ad strategy. What do Mac Mini and Jobs have in common? New Macbook and Macbook Pro reports. Is GPU support for H.264 making an early appearance? Quicktime 7.6 seeded to developers. Subsidized Macbooks in the UK? Aperture 2.1.2 and iPhoto 7.1.5 updates. Off again, on again Airport Extreme update. New iPod Shuffles show their colors. iPod turns 7 years old. First seeds of 10.5.6 show up. Second Snow Leopard build. iPhone 2.2 beta 2 release to developers. A follow-up on archive backups. New Macbooks battery indicator codes. Listener Macbook Questions. Free Codeweavers software on 10/28. OS X keeps asking for your wi-fi password. Unlearn words added to the Dictionary. Listen to iPhone audio via Bluetooth. Special thanks to our sponsors: Wizard 2 - Merlin is professional-grade project management application software designed specifically for the Macintosh operating system. Written using the latest Apple technology for Mac OS X, Merlin's rich feature set and intuitive tools allow you to focus on your work, not the software. Smile on My Mac, check out the new PDFpen 4 New music, Cities of Refuge by Matthew Blake EOL: 1st Gen iPod Review (Link) There is a war coming. Are you sure you're on the right side? -- X-Men (2000) Shownotes in: HTML or OPML Subscribe to the Podcast Feed or Get the MP3
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Free CrossOver Day Today!
Put away your credit cards and get your download link-clicking fingers primed and ready, because Codeweavers is offering a copy of either CrossOver Linux or Mac for free to all comers…today only! The programs, which normally retail for $40, will be available free of charge (one license per customer) until midnight CST. The giveaway is the result of the Bush administration actually achieving one of Codeweaver CEO Jeremy White's “Lame Duck” goals, according to TUAW, who made the announcement earlier today. Specifically, the goal achieved was a price in gas of $2.79, which was actually precipitated by global economic conditions and not specific action from the White House. Still, White is making good on his promise. CrossOver is a user friendly GUI for the Wine open source code, which allows Windows applications to be run on either OS X or Linux platforms without actually purchasing or installing a Windows license. The version available for download tomorrow will apparently be CrossOver for Mac professional, which includes CrossOver Games and 12 months support. Let's just hope the Codeweavers servers hold out! Check the official press release here for more information on how to get your free download, and see the remaining items on the “Lame Duck” list.
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New MacBooks Still Deliver Sticker Shock With Style
Plastic used to be the sexy material of the future. Now, it's the cheap, ugly material of the past. Just look at the effort Apple put into getting rid of plastic when designing its new $1,300 MacBook laptops, which went on sale this month. Apple now is machining the upper part of the chassis from a single block of aluminum, shaving it down to perhaps one-tenth of its original mass. The result is a laptop with the stark elegance of a Modernist skyscraper, all glass and metal.
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Failure as an event
I try hard not to keep a running tally of big-time failures in my head. It gets in the way of creating the next thing. On the other hand, when you see failure as a learning event, not a destination, it makes you smarter, faster. Some big ones from my past:The Boston Bar Exam. My two partners and I spent a lot of time and money building this our last year of college. It was a coupon book filled with free drinks from various bars in Cambridge and Boston. The booklet would be sold at the bars, encouraging, I dunno, drunk driving. Lessons: Don't spend a lot on startup costs, don't sell to bar owners and don't have three equal partners, since once person always feels outvoted.The Internet White Pages. This was a 700 page book filled with nearly a million email addresses. It took months to create and IDG, the publisher, printed 80,000 copies. They shredded 79,000 of them. Lesson: If the Internet Yellow Pages is a huge hit (it was), that doesn't mean the obvious counterpart will be. A directory that's incomplete is almost always worthless. MaxFax. This was the first fax board for the Mac. It would allow any Mac user to hit 'print' and send what was on the screen to any fax machine. We raised seed money from a wealthy dentist, built a working prototype and worked to license it to a big computer hardware company. Lessons: Don't raise money from amateurs, watch out for flaky engineering if you're selling a prototype, think twice before you enter a market with one huge player (Apple knocked off the idea) and don't build a business hoping to sell out unless you have a clear path to do that. I have a dozen more. The first wireless Sonos-like device. A nationwide game show using 900 numbers. A fundraising company that offered lightbulbs for sale to high school bands (lighter than fruit!). Not to mention classic book ideas like, "How to hypnotize your friends and get them to act like chickens." I'm not using hyperbole when I say that in 25 years, I had at least 20 serious career-ending failures. I guess the biggest lessons are: Prepare for the dip. Starting a business is far easier than making it successful. You need to see a path and have the resources to get through it. Cliff businesses are glamorous but dangerous. Projects exist in an eco-system. Who are the other players? How do you fit in? Being the dumbest partner in a room of smart people is exactly where you want to be. And the biggest of all: persist. Do the next one.
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RUMOR: Mac Mini might not be dead after all
TUAW is reporting that the Mac Mini may not be as dead at is seems like it is. The new rumor is that the Mac Mini may be getting a refresh that ditches the Intel integrated motherboard design. I certainly hope it's true. The Mac Mini is what made it possible (financially) for me to get into the Mac in the first place. With the economic downturn that we're currently in, it seems like a pretty poor time to drop the mini from production. Hopefully this rumor ends up being true, and we get a refreshed version of the littlest Mac. The last few refreshes of the product have been released quietly, so don't expect much of a change here, unless Apple decides to re-design the thing.
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Some Macbook manufacturing problems reported online
According to TGDaily some buyers of the new Macbooks are complaining about a loose battery/HDD latch and slanted function keys on the keyboard. This could be an indication that Apple's new manufacturing process need some refinement…or simply that the folks at quality control need to do a better job. Like many Apple problems this could be merely one or two units that are bad - and apparently Apple has agreed to replace certain notebooks with this problem. The problem with the online community (me included) is that we can blow these things out of proportion - so don't start thinking that every new Macbook is going to have this trouble. If it does - just take it to an Apple store, or call support and I'm sure the situation can be fixed. It is possible, though, that Apple needs a little more time with this new manufacturing process to perfect it…we'll just have to see how many of these defective units eventually show up.
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“A Vampyre Story” coming soon to Mac
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VIDEO: Google Earth is now available for your iPhone
Google Earth is now available for the iPhone - and it's pretty darn impressive. The software (which is demoed in the video above) is virtually the same as its desktop counterpart. The touch controls work really well, and it's very cool to see location services find your house from space. You can literally travel the world from your phone now, and view some spectacular photos of places all over the world. All this for the astounding price of — free. So if you're on an iPhone - go check out Google Earth right now.
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Mac OS Ken: 10.28.2008
Macworld UK: New iMacs Possible Next Month / Needham and Co. Maintains Bullish Apple Outlook / Steve Jobs Heart Attack Prank Apparently Not for Profit / Jobs: Apple TV Still a âHobbyâ / Netflix Moves Closer to âWatch Instantlyâ for Mac (Intel Only) / Apple Updates iPhoto to 7.1.5 / Apple Updates Airport Extreme to 2008-004 / Apple Insider: Apple Floats iPhone Software 2.2 beta 2 and Snow Leopard Test Releases to Developers / Apple Pledges $100k to Fight Same-Sex Marriage Ban / Verizon Settles Visual Voicemail Dispute with Klausner Technologies / Google Earth Released for iPhone and iPod Touch