Jun 14, 2009 Jun 16, 2009 Monday June 15, 2009
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The modern Penny Dreadful arrives on the iPhone
Posted by Dennis SellersSteampulp Publishing LLC today released Steampunk Tales #1, its first electronic pulp fiction magazine created exclusively for the iPhone and iPod touch. It contains 10 short stories (between 4,300 and 11,000 words) for US$1.99 and can be downloaded at the Apple App Store.
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AT&T to Offer MMS for Free on Text Bundles
Even though iPhone OS 3.0 will be out Wednesday and provides support for MMS and tethering, AT&T won't have either of these ready this week. No, AT&T will have MMS ready "later this summer", and no official word on tethering. read more
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The Daily Roundup: here's what you might've missed
Samsung's Omnia family hands-on, Samsung Jet and Pixon 12 come along for the ride It's hard not to notice the stunning AMOLED screens on these phones, especially up against the dull-by-comparison Omnia Lite with its petty LCD. Palm webOS system upgrades mandatory; hacking scene forbidden from tetheringThe Pre and webOS have attracted a lot of talent in the past two weeks, and it'd be a shame to lose it. (See also: Palm Pre data tethering is a go, Sprint be damned) Leaked Olympus E-P1 Micro Four Thirds compact has us hot, botheredIt's not scheduled to be announced until tomorrow, but it looks like Olympus' Micro Four Thirds tribute to the classic rangefinder has leaked out onto these here Internets looking every bit as handsome as the top-side leak seen earlier. Other news of import Samsung Omnia II now official: AMOLED touchscreen with TouchWiz 2.0 destined for Verizon Push notifications go live on iPhone courtesy of Tap Tap Revenge Is this Dell's Android smartphone ditty? iPhone 3G S pre-orders start shipping, reservations estimated in the hundreds of thousands Analyst: Blu-ray can't stop video sales slump, sees modest growth in 2010 As frequently predicted, Blu-ray hasn't been enough to make up for sagging DVD sales, as a new Screen Digest report indicates a 4.8 percent slide worldwide last year, falling more than $2.6 billion. Samsung Jet packs an 800MHz processor, AMOLED display, featurephone OS Samsung's busy launching a bunch of handsets across even more timezones right now, and in addition to all the Omnia updates, there's also the Jet, which is an interesting hybrid. FCC says DTV transition going smoothly, few TVs shot up Marantz UD9004 SACD / Blu-ray player combo priced & dated T-Mobile myTouch 3G spotted in the wild, G1 starting to feel unloved BlackBerry Curve 8520 with T-Mobile branding walks in front of a camera Sony Ericsson launching something at ComunicAsia this week -- XPERIA X2, maybe? The Daily Roundup: here's what you might've missed originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Word Tower released for the iPhone, iPod touch
Posted by Dennis SellersWord Tower, a word play game for the iPhone and iPod touch has been released. It's available for US$1.99 at the Apple App Store.
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Flip Video gets channels, iPhone app for viewing
Flip Video users are getting a handy software update that will allow them to very quickly (and privately) share video clips with friends and family sans YouTube or some other video host.
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Classified Pro released for the iPhone, iPod touch
Posted by Dennis SellersClassifieds Pro is a new app for the iPhone and iPod touch. The classified ad aggregator is available at the Apple App Store for US$0.99 for a limited time. It's regularly $2.99.â¨
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YouMail's visual voicemail comes calling on iPhone
A version of YouMail's free visual voicemail service lets you manage voice messages on your iPhone as you would your e-mail.
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The Tech Night Owl: 'after the switch'
Posted by Dennis SellersOn today's commentary, Gene “Mac Night Owl” Steinberg looks at different cable TV services.
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How to Make Your iPhone the Ultimate Music Festival Companion
Before you get in the van this summer for a hard day's rocking, you'll want to pack along the most indispensable tool since Fender invented a little six-string called the Stratocaster--your iPhone. We've already explained how to just survive with your mobile gear, now we'll show you exactly why God gave Rock an' Roll to you with an assortment of Apps, tricks and tips to crank it up to eleven.No Way Homeread more
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iCreated art gallery released for the iPhone, iPod touch
Posted by Dennis SellersDigital Artist and iPhone Developer have released iCreated, which turns iPhone and iPod touch screens into mobile art galleries. It's available at the Apple App Store for a special one-week introductory price of US$0.99, over 50 percent off the list price of $1.99.
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Mobicip delivers mobile parental control service for iPhones
Posted by Dennis SellersMobicip, a maker of Internet child safety products for mobile devices, has announced Mobicip.com Premium, a web-based parental control service with four layers of protection that allows parents of children with iPhones, iPod touches and Netbooks to track Internet usage.
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Wolfram|Alpha now has an iPhone portal
Filed under: Education, Odds and ends, Internet Tools, iPhone, iPod touchThe knowledge engine at the heart of the recently launched Wolfram|Alpha site can answer queries that would baffle traditional search engines. It can make amazing comparisons, perform linguistic searches, and provides a way to do calculations that are impossible elsewhere other than in a copy of Mathematica.Now there's a mobile Web portal for Wolfram|Alpha that is designed for viewing on either an iPhone or iPod touch. Point Safari on your mobile device to http://www.wolframalpha.com/iphone, and you can compute queries as well as test most of the functionality of the Wolfram|Alpha engine. You'll need to set a bookmark icon on your home screen to go back to the page (just press the + icon at the bottom of the Safari screen). Wolfram is also asking for input on what people would like to see in future versions of mobile websites or apps. You can join the conversation here. Are any TUAW readers eagerly waiting for Mathematica Mobile to be released for the iPhone platform?TUAWWolfram|Alpha now has an iPhone portal originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 15 Jun 2009 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Apple announces Mac OS X Snow Leopard Up-to-Date Program
Posted by Dennis SellersApple has announced its Mac OS X Snow Leopard Up-to-Date program. If you purchased a qualifying system or Xserve on or after June 8 that doesn't include Mac OS X Snow Leopard, you can upgrade to Mac OS X Snow Leopard for US$9.95.
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FileWave ships FileWave InventoryT 9.0 for Mac, Windows
Posted by Dennis SellersFileWave has released version 9 of FileWave InventoryT. The new version allows customers to meet the ever-growing requirements for asset and inventory management, according to Ben Forsyth, director of Software Development for FileWave.
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Zynga Wants Apple to Build Facebook Connect Into iPhone
The Palm Pre is here, and while it hasn't exactly felled the Goliath of Apple's iPhone, it does have some features that are making iPhone users jealous. One is greater built-in social networking connectivity, including Facebook integration. The implementation of Facebook in Palm's WebOS basically allows your Pre phone to store Facebook friend info in your address book, and then message those people directly from the phone. Zynga wants Apple to make a similar move towards greater Facebook connectivity with the iPhone, but the game company has different motives, and very different integration goals as a result. Specifically, Zuora is looking for Apple to implement a platform-wide solution for a feature that it currently builds into each of its individual apps: Facebook Connect access. Facebook Connect, for those who don't know, allows users to enter their Facebook credentials to log into an app (web or otherwise) for a variety of purposes, including commenting on forums, and game score tracking and cross-platform integration. So, in Zynga's case, for instance, it allows your Word Scramble scores on your iPhone and your Scramble scores on Facebook to be tracked across both. Zynga clearly has a good reason, then, to want Apple to bake Facebook Connect right into the iPhone platform, since its users would then be saved the extra step of having to sign in every time they download and play a new Zynga game. It probably wouldn't take much effort on Apple's part to include the service, especially compared to the work required by game makers like Zynga to include it each and every time they produce a game. Including a Facebook Connect API would be much more efficient from a developer's perspective. While it makes lots of sense for companies in the social casual gaming sense like Zynga to push FB Connect integration, does it make sense from Apple's perspective? If the benefits of inclusion only appeal to the relatively narrow audience of regular Zynga players who use both Facebook and iPhones, I doubt Apple will go out of its way to come up with a platform-wide solution on its side of things. But the potential of Facebook Connect, or Google Friend Connect for that matter, could appeal to a much broader audience than just social game devs. Because FB Connect leverages the power of your social networking sites in the context of virtually any web-connected application, the possibilities that present themselves when you combine this tech with a device as prolific and app-oriented as the iPhone are endless. In theory, you could then have one cohesive identity for all web, phone, and app usage, all from your smartphone, where it makes sense, as opposed to on a computer, where that kind of access would present much more of a security concern. Apple has to go somewhere from iPhone OS 3.0, and unlike the release of 2.0, user complaints and requests aren't so deafening as to point the way (read the last paragraph, especially) for future feature inclusions. Facebook Connect integration is fertile ground, especially if one of Apple's goals is to continue appealing to developers in new and interesting ways. Plus, Palm dropped the gauntlet on greater social network connectivity. Time to pick it up.
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NEC announces large-format pro series of displays
Posted by Dennis SellersNEC Solutions of America has announced the MultiSync Professional Series, which features the 40-inch P401 and 46-inch P461 professional-grade LCD displays. These large-format displays are designed for quick-service restaurants, airports, public information, healthcare and retail environments.
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Documentation available for RTMP specification
Posted by Dennis SellersAs part of the Open Screen Project Adobe announced in January plans to publish the Real-Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP) specification, which is designed for high-performance transmission of audio, video, and data between Adobe Flash Platform technologies.
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University Reports That Glossy Screens May Be Harmful
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For May, Mac sales held up, iPods didn't
Posted by Dennis Sellers Apple's Mac business in May was down three percent year-over-year, according to U.S. retail estimates from research firm NPD Group. The iPod biz was down, unit sales-wise, 18 percent year-over-year.
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Apple releases Java security updates
Posted by Dennis SellersApple has posted Java security updates for Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5. Java for Mac OS X 10.4 Update 9 and Java for Mac OS X 10.5 Update 4 deliver improved reliability, security, and compatibility for Java SE 6, J2SE 5.0 and J2SE 1.4.2.
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Sandbox 132: The Unseen
Posted by Frank PetrieThis week we have some one very special on the Sandbox. And we're digging into their past. Is that a wise thing to do? You decide.
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Java vulnerability in Mac OS X finally patched
Filed under: SecurityIt's been a long wait. Fire up Software Update and you should see Java for Mac OS X 10.5 (or 10.4) update 4. This update closes a vulnerability first discussed in August of last year; it was patched by Sun and most other JVM developers months ago.Apple's sluggishness on fixing this security issue could have allowed attackers to run arbitrary applications or processes on your machine if you visited a webpage hosting a malicious Java applet. The vulnerability was pointed out in graphic fashion by security researcher Landon Fuller. Fuller took the exploit code that was circulating in the wild and built a proof of concept page that would run an innocuous program (the command-line 'say' utility) from a rigged Java applet; after the ensuing publicity, less than a month later, we have a patch.Once you've updated, if you took the precaution of disabling Java in your browser settings, you can feel free to go ahead and turn it back on... although, if you haven't missed it, no need to change anything.Thanks to everyone who sent this in.[via Glenn Fleishman / TidBITS]TUAWJava vulnerability in Mac OS X finally patched originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 15 Jun 2009 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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June 15 'Macsimum Podcast' is up
Posted by Dennis SellersThe June 15 Macsimum Podcast, hosted by Macsimum News Associate Editor Frank Petrie, is up. Today's episode includes: “Make Up Your Minds,” “More Psystar,” “Gloss Over,” “The Final Story” and more.
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aTV Flash 3.6 adds Loop pointer functionality to Apple TV
Posted by Dennis SellersVersion 3.6 of aTV Flash—an US$59.95 USB flash drive that inserts into the Apple TV and will upgrade it to do various kinds of new things—has been released. This version adds support for the Loop pointer, from Hillcrest Labs, to the Apple TV.
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Marco Arment on Appleâs WWDC-Closing âFuck Youâ to iPhone Developers
Marco Arment: The last session of WWDC ‘09 yesterday was about publishing on the App Store. The content of sessions is under NDA, so I canât tell you what it was about. So Iâll tell you what wasnât in it: the audience Q&A session that succeeded nearly every other WWDC session and usually provided invaluable access to Apple employees and useful additional knowledge to attendees. The session itself blew through its lightweight examples quickly, ending 45 minutes early. The majority of the audience was clearly there for the Q&A. As people lined up at the microphones around the room, the presenter abruptly showed a simple slide with only âWWDCâ in plain lettering, thanked us for coming, and bolted off the stage. The Apple engineers, usually staying around the stage for one-on-one questions, were gone. The lights came up instantly, and it was the only session that didnât end in music. The audience was stunned. It was a giant middle finger to iPhone developers. And thatâs the closing impression that Apple gave us for WWDC. In four or five years of attendance, the only WWDC sessions I have ever seen without Q&A were those that ran out of time. The App Store team simply knew what the questions were going to be like and were unwilling to face them. â
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Safari 4âs Full-Page Zoom
Pierre Igot: There is just no comparison between how Safari 4 scales pages and how it used to be in previous versions of the browser, or how it still is with several other browsers. â
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Craig Hockenberry on Emergency App Store Updates
Good idea from Craig Hockenberry: If every developer was given one or two âprioritized reviews,â it would act as insurance for the brain farts. Youâd have a way to raise a flag and say âI need special attention for a critical bug.â (And good to hear that the twitpocalypse bug fix update for the iPhone version of Twitterrific was approved so quickly.) â
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Apple, Research in Motion and Google - the Holy Trio of the Nasdaq
While there is a lot of fuss and muss about the NASDAQ this, or that - really the index can be broken down to the holy trio of Research in Motion (RIMM), Apple (AAPL), and Google (GOOG) much of the time. Every time there is a big performance either to the upside or downside, I read about how these handful of stocks contributed 30,40% of the move.As I mentioned in the weekly summary, Research in Motion reports this week... and Apple had pulled back to support. Relatively speaking Apple is holding up well today and it sits right at the 20 day moving average. Today's pullback has pushed RIMM to the same spot.
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AT&T signals an abrupt end for prepaid iPhone plans
Filed under: iPod Family, iPhoneI just spent the last half hour on the phone with AT&T, and I can't quite believe what I heard. I am an AT&T customer, and have been so since the weekend that the iPhone debuted. I am on an official iPhone GoPhone plan. I have paid monthly for two years and am up to date on said payments. After two years, AT&T now tells me that I will either begin a new contract on my existing equipment, or lose access to a reliable data plan. My jaw is dragging the floor. When TUAW reader Daniel Burkholder tipped us off this afternoon, I thought he was somehow misled by the text message that appeared on his iPhone. It reads: AT&T Free MSG: A new software upgrade for iPhone will be available on 6/17. This upgrade may affect your data service. Please visit att.com/iphone or call 800-901-9878 for a representative. If you download the software and are not on an approved iPhone data plan, your data service will be interrupted. So I called, despite the fact that I am on an approved data plan. Sure, my account is grandfathered in, and new iPhone 3G purchasers can no longer get GoPhone activation (click the "New to AT&T" link to see the relevant section), but it's never been an issue. I was told that AT&T was asking customers to move to a contract plan as they no longer plan to support prepaid data. "This is a recommendation," the technical support person told me. "If you decide not to go, it's okay but we're informing customers that service will not be up to par." I asked if they were deliberately cutting out GoPhone customers from full Internet access (and mind you, I asked this in several ways, at least three or four times), and was told 'Yes.' "This will affect logging onto the Internet and using your data services." How will they detect this? According to the technical representative, their equipment will be checking the SIM and using the account information when accessing AT&T's data services. "Based on your plan, you will not receive the same quality service on your GoPhone plan, even with the same equipment. This is a technical change on AT&T's end on how we service that data plan." Gotcha -- so nothing at all to do with the 3.0 OS upgrade, but merely a convenient point of transition. I pushed further, asking whether I could move to a postpaid plan without invoking a two-year contract as I already fully owned my equipment and had been a customer for two years on my current plan. "You will have to enter a new contract as this service change is not compatible with the iPhone prepaid. You cannot enter a postpaid contract without a two year commitment." The technician pointed out that "the iPhone has drastically cut prices" on recent models. I responded that my 2G iPhone was working fine. He pointed out that this was an official AT&T policy and that they have decided that "all prepaid customers should transfer into a contract plan for the iPhone." I asked him to point me to an official policy statement but he said at this time only the text messages going out are available as official communications with customers. "This is an official iPhone advisory. We are informing customers by text messages." So this is how AT&T rewards me for two years of customer loyalty: I either have to start paying up another $20+ per month and commit to two years of additional service (without any further breaks on equipment or contract terms, if I don't choose to buy a 3G S right now), or accept that I'm going to be paying good money each month for a plan with substandard data service. Based on the fact that the data pinching will happen deliberately on AT&T's end, I'd call it a strongarm approach and a rotten way to treat customers. It's one thing, if you're going to make a change in the terms of service for an admittedly legacy (but still perfectly usable) service plan, to clearly communicate customer options well ahead of the transition date, and to work with loyal users to find accommodations that satisfy. It's quite another thing to lower the boom with two days warning: upgrade or suffer. Update Official statement here.TUAWAT&T signals an abrupt end for prepaid iPhone plans originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 15 Jun 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Will Ionic Wind Cool MacBooks of the Future?
Two abiding challenges of laptop computer engineering are the antagonistically complimentary objectives of packing more and more computing and graphics power, memory, speed, and storage capacity into thinner and smaller form factors, while keeping power consumption, heat generation, and heat dispersal to tolerable levels. In the context of cooling, desktop computer designers have the luxury of fewer space and power consumption constraints making techniques such as large heat sinks, water-cooling, and multiple, high-volume fans practical solutions. Laptops provide far less latitude in terms of cooling options, the most prolific solution being the crudeness and noise pollution of small, high-RPM fans blowing or sucking air rapidly over the surface of the processor core and other internal components. More Elegant Solution However, Tessera, a San Jose, California based firm that develops cutting-edge technologies aimed at next-generation wireless, consumer and computing products, has developed a potentially more elegant cooling solution that induces cooling airflow by way of ionizing air particles. It calls this technology an Electrohydrodynamic (EHD) ionic wind pump. The EHD technique involves applying a voltage to a sharp electrode which ionizes nearby air molecules that are propelled by the electric field, transferring momentum to neutral air molecules, thus creating airflow across hot internal components and hence cooling those components. Such ionic-cooling systems have been demonstrated in research labs before, but Tessera is the first to test the technology inside a working laptop by replacing the stock rotary fans with EHD blowers. A technological speed bump for engineers to overcome was to design a sufficiently compact voltage converter that could change the laptop battery's 12-volts DC into the roughly 3,000 volts required to operate the ionic wind pump. They succeeded by using a power supply from a cold cathode fluorescent lamp to construct a supply that is only three centimeters square. Advantages: Better Heat Reduction, No Noise The payoff is that Tessera's tests indicate that the ionic-cooling system can extract roughly 30 percent more heat from a laptop than a conventional fan and could potentially consuming only half as much power to operate the cooling system. Another superiority of EHD cooling is that it's entirely solid-state, involving no moving parts and consequently creating no noise. It's also more compact, making it suitable for thinner, lighter portable devices. In a paper (PDF) presented at the 25th IEEE SEMI-THERM Symposium, Tessera scientists noted that demand for ever smaller portable devices has resulted in heat fluxes that push the limits of conventional fan-based air cooling technology, and that Electrohydrodynamic ionic wind pumps offer an attractive alternative to fans. The researchers chose a laptop with a TDP (Total Dissipated Power) of ~60W as a test platform to demonstrate the EHD proof-of-concept thermal management system. The laptop's two stock 65mm rotary fans were removed and replaced with two EHD blower systems and associated control electronics configured to fit in the space vacated by the fans, which was done for simplicity but does not necessarily demonstrate the full performance potential for the EHD thermal solution. EHD vs. Fan Performance In tests, the EHD retrofitted laptop was compared against a standard version of the same model cooled using the two stock mechanical fans. Major heat sources of the laptop were an Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, GPU, and the chipset. In operation, the retrofitted laptop performed similarly to the stock unit with no apparent impact on laptop functionality. There was no discernible impact on electrically sensitive systems such as wireless communication and trackpad human interface. Thermal performance of the prototype system was measured by running several benchmark programs including Geekbench and a looped 1080P movie trailer. Hardware Monitor, an off the shelf system utility application, was used to monitor the real time temperature of major components, such as the CPU, GPU and their respective heatsinks. The CPU and GPU temperature of the retrofitted EHD cooled laptop was found to be approximately 10 degrees celsius higher than the stock fan cooled laptop, with an overall temperature rise of approximately 60 degrees celsius. Benchmark results demonstrated comparable overall performance scores, with a variation of less than one percent between stock and EHD retrofitted laptops while running at an 1800MHz clock speed, with skin temperature for both the keyboard and bottom surface of the laptop, showing a temperature difference less than 5 degrees celsius. Optimized Prototype Design and testing of a second generation prototype is now in progress, with a more optimized configuration in which the laptop's shelf spreader, heatpipe, and heatsink, have been removed. The researchers report that this second generation solution dramatically increases heat transfer while reducing overall size of the cooling apparatus, by using the collector as the heat removal surface and by increasing its total area with no additional weight or volume associated with a separate heatsink, as is the case with a fan. Comparing heat removed using EHD vs. fan-driven flow, for a given flow rate and the same temperature drop, EHD generated air flow removed up to 38 percent more heat than a fan. Remaining Challenge — Durability A remaining challenge of EHD technology is longevity and reliability of the electrodes, specifically some unique failure modes associated with the emitter electrode. Electrode degradation can be caused by the corona discharge surrounding the corona electrode, leading to surface degradation from effects such as metal sputtering at high electric fields and surface oxidation. Proper selection of emitter material, which can overcomes these challenges, is necessary to meet the required longevity, which in laptops is targeted for at least 30,000 hours. Dust accumulation can also degrade EHD cooling performance, and Tessara is working on making its ionic-cooler no more sensitive to dust than a fan. The researchers summarize that even with an un-optimized design, the EHD system shows promising cooling performance with reduced thermal solution volume and acoustics. And by incorporating further design optimization and modification of the cooling solution, it is expected that performance can be further improved to exceed that of laptop rotary fans. Other valuable advantages would include effectively silent operation, a more flexible cooling system form factor able to fit around electronics, and reduced thermal solution height and volume requirements. EHD Technology in MacBooks? I expect it may be a while before we see EHD technology in MacBooks, but given Steve Jobs' famous dislike of fan racket, it's a pretty safe bet that Apple would be one of the first laptop makers to adopt EHD cooling when it becomes available.
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'The MUG Event Calendar': Mac movies, iLife '09, troubleshooting, more
Posted by Dennis SellersThis week's MUG Event Calendar is highlighted by a vendor visit and movie screenings. Other presentations include Apple Mail, iLife '09, karoke, Mac OS X troubleshooting and management, backups and more.
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Fixing a cracked iPod Touch screen
CNET's Donald Bell shares his experience replacing a cracked screen on an Apple iPod Touch.
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Screenium 1.2 for Mac OS X beefs up the user interface, more
Posted by Dennis SellersSynium Software has released version 1.2 of Screenium—a screen capture tool to record the current contents of your screen as a movie, including system audio and an optional spoken audio track recorded from your microphone.
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QuickTime X and FLV Video Files
If it’s true that QuickTime X supports playback of .flv video files, you can draw your own conclusion about the chances that Apple will ever allow Flash on the iPhone OS. â
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A free app for those who love art
Filed under: iPhone, App Store, iPod touch, tip-of-the-day, App ReviewIt's true. I'm delighted to find free applications that stimulate and involve. The iPhone/iPod touch continues to open new vistas for those willing to explore the app store.If you love great art, then get thee to iTunes and download Love Art [App Store link] which is a tour of some of the great works at National Gallery in London. The app features about 250 art treasures, with videos, audio commentary, zoom-able high-res images, and galleries and themed tours.The download is 207 MB, so don't try this if your iPhone is on the edge storage wise. I really enjoyed browsing through all the material, and learned a great deal listening to the commentaries and viewing the videos.Having been to the National Gallery myself when I lived in London, it brought back happy memories. It is not a substitute for visiting the great art treasures on display there, but it will do until my next trip.This is the kind of app that could sell for real money. For free, it's a great demo of what the iPhone can do, and a great app to explore and enjoy.If you want to see how the app works without the big download go the the developer's site and click on 'watch the video demo'. One of the real advantages of being a TUAW regular is getting tips to great free software. Here is your bonus for today.Here are some screen captures of the app in action:Gallery: Love ArtTUAWA free app for those who love art originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Jon Sheaâs Menlo vs. Vera Sans Mono Comparison
Every tweak Apple made to Menlo is an improvement over Vera Sans to my eyes. Better, though, would be a comparison of Menlo to Panic Sans, the tweaked version of Vera Sans Mono that ships with Coda. Update: My wish is their command: Shea added comparisons to Panic Sans. Menlo looks really nice. â
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Whatâs the Buzz About the SD Card Slot?
When I originally wrote about the introduction of the new 15″ MacBook Pro, I was curious as to if the newly featured SD card slot would support even newer SDHC cards. A little research later, I learned that the MacBook Pro does support this standard and has a few more tricks up its sleeve. So what's all the buzz about the SD card slot? Back to the Basics SD (Secure Digital) cards are one of many competing formats for storing data onto flash based memory cards (similar to how iPod nanos and iPod shuffles work). Among other competing formats, such as Memory Stick (Sony) or CompactFlash, SD has become one of the more popular types, found in newer digital cameras and camcorders. Great. What's This Mean for MacBook Users? When Apple introduced Intel Macs in 2005, many were surprised to see that they could be booted from a USB drive in addition to FireWire, as had been the standard among PowerPC Macs. Many were surprised to find out last week, that with the addition of the built in SD card slot in these new Mac portables, that they are also capable of being booted from this format. While this isn't exactly feasible, as SD cards are still more expensive than optical media for comparable capacity, it really does speak highly for the robustness of the Mac platform. Of course, what would you expect? You can now pretty much boot a Mac from any device you can connect to it, from a FireWire hard drive, to an SD card, to your iPod. (Try that on a Windows computer!) Hidden Secrets of the SD Card Slot In addition to being able to boot from the SD cards, the new SD card slot also supports most MultiMediaCards (MMCs) as they are physically similar to SD cards. Additionally, derivatives of SD card technology, such as MiniSD, MicroSD, MiniSDHC and MicroSDHC can also be used with appropriate adapters. What Doesn't Work… At Least, That We Know Of CES 2009 brought about the announcement of a newer format, called SDXC, which will allow for capacities up to 2TB in size. Due to the relatively recent announcement of this technology, and only one or two types of this card in existence, I am unaware if this card can be read by the new MacBook Pros. Another implementation of SD technology, called SDIO (for Secure Digital Input Output) is incompatible with the card slot. This new technology is designed to combine the functionality of an input/output device, such as an ethernet or bluetooth adapter, with an SD card for greater functionality. Will We See This Spread? Apple stunned almost everybody with the announcement of a built in card slot for the MacBook Pros. Card slots in general really aren't something Apple has favored in the past (opting for devices like iPods and iPhones to have completely built in memory). Even their reluctance to spread the technology to the 17″ MacBook Pro indicates that Apple is testing the reception of having this functionality built into their portables. During the Keynote address, Phil Schiller mentioned that Apple knew that a very small percentage (less than 10 percent) of their users actually used the ExpressCard slot on their portables. If Apple is capable of tracking usage this accurately, then it stands to reason that if the SD card slot proves popular, it could be expanded to the other products as well. SD technology is certainly very robust and with newer standards and higher capacities around the corner, it is keeping up with changing times. This is the exact kind of stability Apple looks for when deciding to go with a new standard, such as including USB or adding FireWire 800 or gigabit ethernet to their products. With more and more consumer electronics using SD cards, the addition of a built in slot is definitely a “win” for consumers.
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The Mac Night Owl: 'the browser wars and Microsoft's ongoing deception'
Posted by Dennis SellersOn today's commentary, Gene “Mac Night Owl” Steinberg looks at “the browser wars and Microsoft's ongoing deception.”
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iPhone 3G S Not Yet Sold Out
There are reports that AT&T retail stores are sold out of pre-order 3G Ss, but Apple’s online store is still taking orders for delivery Friday. I ordered mine this morning. (I’ve been dreading my first pluralized “3G S” for weeks.) â
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Audacious updates Shion home automation software for Mac OS X
Posted by Dennis SellersAudacious Software has updated Shion, their home automation solution for Mac OS X, to version 2.0. Using commodity X10 and Insteon devices, the new Shion user can begin controlling their apartment, home, or office in less than 10 minutes, according to the folks at Audacious.
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New iPhone Set to Continue Apple's Quest for Dominance
Forrester Research says Apple's iPhone strategy will help Apple further its world domination plan. In a new report, Forrester analyst Charles Golvin says Apple's (NASDAQ: APPL) decision to differentiate its new version via not only its new features, such as video capture and editing, but also its performance is an unusual one for the phone industry.
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Beware the Newtapocalypse, a 2010 bug for the Newton MessagePad
Filed under: Hardware, Software, Odds and ends, Apple HistoryWe made it through Y2K and we appear to be surviving Twitpocalypse, but will Apple Newton MessagePad fans make through the Newtapocalypse? Apple's ill-fated and technologically advanced personal digital assistant was hot stuff in the 1990s until it was axed in February of 1998. There are still a good number of Newton MessagePad fans who not only use their devices every day, but are also working together on hardware and software updates to their units to bring them into the 21st Century. The Newtapocalypse occurs next year at 6:48:31 PM on January 5th, 2010. While a majority of the functions of the MessagePad are not affected by the impending doom, calendar functions are. Here's a description of the problem from 40hz.org: The overflow happens in all NewtonScript functions which use seconds as the resolution. In contrast to the 32 bit unsigned integer used by the C++ functions, NewtonScript integers are only 30 bits wide. While the C++ functions can handle times from 1904 until 2040 without an overflow, the NewtonScript functions had to be designed with a smaller range of applicable times due to the limited precision. The seconds-based functions are implemented by taking the value of the real-time clock, subtracting the offset to January 1st 1993, and converting the results to a NewtonScript integer. This limited range causes an overflow on Tuesday, January 5, 2010 at 6:48:31 PM. This is the list of affected functions: SetSysAlarm TimeInSeconds TimeToTimeInSeconds TimeInSecondsToTime Got that? John Sculley and company were probably hoping that by now you'd be using your Knowledge Navigator instead of a Newton MessagePad, and 2010 seemed far, far away. For anyone who wants to use calendar alarm functions on a Newton OS 2.1 devices after January 5th of next year, there's a fix that is being tested. Now you'll be able to sleep better at night, won't you?TUAWBeware the Newtapocalypse, a 2010 bug for the Newton MessagePad originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 15 Jun 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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'Macsimum Recommended Reading' for June 15
Posted by Dennis Sellers“Rethinking the iPhone's Role in Computing: Is the iPhone a personal computer that just happens to make phone calls, or a phone that just happens to run apps? And if it's really a PC that fits in your pocket, does that change how you use it?”—PC Magazine
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iPhone Maker Sees Faster Boat to China
“We will enter Asia with the iPhone in 2008…we will one day enter China, we're not saying when.” Apple COO Tim Cook said that back in March of 2008, and it's a good thing he declined to offer a more specific timeline. Because here we are, well over a year later, and Apple still hasn't managed to officially launch the iPhone to China.
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Apple says iPhone 3G S pre-orders will be filled on time
Michael L Basham & Prince McLean, AppleInsider Despite warnings from AT&T that claimed high demand for the new iPhone 3G S would prevent it from shipping pre-orders by the June 19 launch date, Apple is still promising to satisfy all web pre-orders with a Friday delivery. Apple says iPhone 3G S pre-orders will be filled on time . The [...]
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Flower identification engine blooms for iPhone, iPod touch
Posted by Dennis Sellers Muli Mobile has released FlowerPedia 1.0, a flower identification engine and encyclopedia for the iPhone and iPod touch. It's available for a special launch price of US$4.99 at the Apple App Store.
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New MacBook Pros shipped with HDDs only have 1.5Gbps SATA enabled
Apple might have bumped the 13-inch unibody MacBook to Pro status at WWDC last week, but it looks like all the shuffling around to reduce costs has had an unfortunate side effect: new MacBook Pros that ship with HDDs only have a 1.5GBps SATA enabled, while SSD configs are apparently getting the full 3.0GBps SATA II experience that used to be standard. For most people this won't make too much difference since traditional hard drives can't move data that fast, but it's something to keep in mind if you're hoping to buy an HDD unit and swap in a speedier SSD, since your max performance will be bottlenecked. We've verified that our review units with HDDs all have the slower settings, but we've put in a call to Apple to get some more answers on this -- stay tuned.[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]Filed under: LaptopsNew MacBook Pros shipped with HDDs only have 1.5Gbps SATA enabled originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Hunch
Hunch, the ambitious new decision-making expert system, is out of beta. Examples: “What sci-fi movie should I watch?”, “Should I buy an Apple iPhone or a Palm Pre?”, and “Where should I eat in/around San Francisco?” â
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Microsoft to announce Azure business plan next month
Microsoft plans to announce next month more of the business details behind its Windows Azure operating system. The software maker unveiled the cloud-based operating system at a developer conference last year. It has said that some of the services, currently in free testing, will be released in final form this ...
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DataViz brings Documents To Go to the App Store
Editing documents? On a phone? We're sure most iPhone users are a little taken aback by this prospect, but we assure you it's completely safe and devoid of artificial preservatives. DataViz just launched its Documents To Go suite for the iPhone, which lets you edit and create Word documents, sync work files with a desktop over WiFi, and view other Office documents with the iPhone's existing viewer -- it's not the first app to offer some of these functions for the device, but it's the first with this level of street cred. An optional version of the app also includes a Exchange mail client with ActiveSync for accessing and editing Word documents from email, which seemingly flies in the face of Apple's vague "don't mess with Mail or any of our other built-in apps" policy. The basic Documents To Go app retails for a limited time at $4.99, while the Exchange version goes for $9.99 -- and anyone who picks up the 1.0 version will get a free update to include Excel editing once it becomes available.Filed under: Cellphones, HandheldsDataViz brings Documents To Go to the App Store originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Apple announces Snow Leopard Up-To-Date program
Filed under: OS, Apple, Snow LeopardIf you purchased a new Mac or Xserve on or after June 8th, Apple just announced that you'll be able to take advantage of the Mac OS X Snow Leopard Up-To-Date Program. Under the terms of this program, if you purchase a Mac or Xserve on or after the cutoff date, and Snow Leopard is not included in the box, you'll be eligible to receive an upgrade DVD for only US$9.95 (shipping is included in price). The program web page is currently stating that additional information will be posted tomorrow (June 16th), and we'll be sure to keep you in the loop if any changes or additions to the program are announced.TUAWApple announces Snow Leopard Up-To-Date program originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Thoughts on Safari 4: Some Bad, Mostly Good
Iâve been running the release version of Safari 4 on Mac OS and Windows XP for a few days. There are a lot of good features with Safari 4 — and I have no desire to go back to version 3 — but I do miss the beta sometimes. Whereâd My Tabs Go? Yes, the oft-criticized Tabs on Top (TOT) have been removed. I loved these things, and am disappointed they're gone. It just reaffirms my belief that a windowâs title bar is the most colossal waste of real estate in any GUIâs interface. Everyone treats it as sacrosanct, so theyâre the same everywhere. Apple repurposed the title bar to actually have more âtitlesâ in it, and the tech world freaks. Now weâre back to a title bar that serves minimum purpose (I donât need the title of the browser; the tab bar provides the site name for me anyway) other than to be the worldâs biggest target for moving a window. I can accept Iâm in the minority on this, so Iâll get over it. For those who think Apple should provide the option to use this feature, I disagree. Options are great, but in this case, itâs a pretty major interface change. I donât think Apple should have to drag both chunks of UI code from release to release. This is especially true in the browser space, where it needs to move as as quickly as possible. (I hope work on Safari 5 is already under way.) Being the eternal optimist, however, Iâll look on the bright side and state that two things about the tab bar I lost with TOT are back: 1) I love double-clicking the tabs bar for a new tab and, 2) Itâs a lot easier to grab a tab to move it. Iâd rather have TOT — I think it should have been refined instead of abolished — but Iâll take the good with the bad. No Toolbar Stop/Reload This is just ridiculous. Safari 4 moved the stop and reload functions to the end of the address bar, just like Safari on the iPhone. I have no issue with this. However, in doing so they removed the toolbar buttons for stop and reload. What possible reason could they have had for this? I understand that the buttons wouldnât be part of the default toolbar — just put them in the customize dialog box and let me put them in their rightful place to the left of the address. Unlike TOT, this bit of customization would require trivial coding. Itâs not like the new buttons are the only way to activate these functions; you can click in the address bar and hit enter, you can select Reload Page from the menu, or you can hit Command-R. There is no reason not have a button for this. Honestly, Apple, this is the dumbest browser UI move since Microsoft moved the Home button in Internet Explorer to the lower right toolbar. I'd also point out that Microsoft moved the stop/reload indicators to the right of the title bar by default, but it provides the option to move them to the left. Page Load Indicator and Progress In Safari 4 beta, there was little indication that a page was loading. Safari 3âs useful blue status indicator behind the address was replaced with a tiny rotating indicator at the end of the address bar, which was easily missed. If you hovered the mouse over it, the indicator would change to an âXâ to denote you could stop the load. Again, for space-saving on the iPhone, this is OK, but itâs dumb for the desktop. With the release version of Safari, Apple has changed the load indicator. Itâs still at the end of the address bar, but now it occupies roughly an inch of real estate and has a blue background color. It also displays the rotating load indicator and the âXâ at the same time. In short, you canât miss it, and thereâs little confusion about where to click to stop a page load. This is a nice improvement over the beta. However, the progress indicator behind the address remains absent. Apple says itâs not accurate, and donât I know it. But thatâs beside the point. I donât think any of us were using it to measure its accuracy in depicting whether a given page was really 75 percent of the way complete. No, we used it because it still served the purpose of showing that progress was being made in loading a page, which a continually spinning indicator does not. I wish Apple would bring this back. OK, I can already hear a lot of you now. âGeez, Tom, whine much? Is there anything about this software you like?â Well, yes, actually. Letâs get to the good stuff. Speed Maybe Apple should have called this release Safari 3 S. Itâs all about speed. I think the majority of people moving from version 3 are going to notice the speed increase in loading pages. I really donât care about specs, or if Safari is really the fastest web browser, etc. It doesnât matter. All I care about is that it loads pages noticeably faster than the previous version. Iâm looking forward to this browser on the new iPhone. Top Sites Some people love âem, some hate âem. I have found myself nailing a few pages here, but other than that donât use it for sites so much. However, I use the page often for history searching, which Iâll discuss later. On the other hand, when my daughter saw Top Sites, she loved it. We tend to lose track of how much most browser users are not the geeky types we are. Most of the sites I want are bookmarked, but lots of people donât play that game. To my daughter, Top Sites is an automatic bookmark for her most common stuff. She loves it. Cover Flow When the Safari 4 beta was blasted as being âpointlessly visual,â I commented that it was flexible in how you could use it. To summarize, I turn it off for my bookmarks list (just drag the handle all the way to the top), but love it for history searching. I call up a new tab (Top Sites page), hit Command-F to move to the find box, and start typing to search my history. Hey, you may remember the name of every URL you visit, but I donât. A visual shot of all pages matching my search criteria make it much easier to find the one Iâm looking for. It used to be I kept only a week of history. I was just as likely to find an unfamiliar page Iâd visited and didnât bookmark via Google than my browser history. Cover Flow searching has changed that drastically, and I keep 30 days of history now. Next to the speed increase, this is my favorite feature of Safari 4. Other Goodies There are other nice improvements: Suggested searches drop down when you type in the search bar. And when you type in the address bar, suggested URLs (including those in your bookmarks folders) appear. The latter is especially convenient. Full-page zooming zooms the entire page proportionally, not just the text. However, the option to just zoom text remains. (I use that option; I usually zoom only to make text bigger.) There are a number of compliance improvements as well, such as support for HTML 5. Safari is standards compliant enough to score 100 percent on the Acid3 test. The Bottom Line While I miss Tabs on Top, overall the Safari 4 release is much improved over Safari 3. The speed increase is easily noticed. And with usage improvements of flexible Cover Flow for bookmarks and history, drop down suggestions for URLs and searches, and the customizable Top Sites feature, thereâs something here for everyone. I would never go back to Safari 3.
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Avenza releases MAPublisher 8.1 for Adobe Illustrator
Posted by Dennis Sellers Avenza Systems, makers of MAPublisher cartographic software for Adobe Illustrator and Geographic Imager spatial tools for Adobe Photoshop has released MAPublisher 8.0 for Adobe Illustrator. It's the latest version of mapmaking software used to produce maps from GIS data for both print and electronic distribution.
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Five things still missing from Apple MacBooks
We're down with the new SD card slots and lower prices, but there are still a few items on our MacBook wish list.
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News: Mix: Best Buy, Push Notifications, MapQuest, DataViz
Best Buy will begin selling the iPhone 3G S at its retail locations beginning at 10:00 a.m. Friday morning, and will also offer an accident insurance plan for the handset, AppleInsider reports. Customers will be able to purchase the retailer's Geek Squad Black Tie Protection for the iPhone 3G S, albeit at a rate of $15 per month, or $180 a year, substantially higher than the normal $7-$10/month for other mobile phones. According to the report,…
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iPhone 3G S models already selling out
Posted by Dennis SellersThe iPhone 3G S may be a tough handset to nab on launch day, as Apple and AT&T have already sold out of their launch day pre-order units, reports InformationWeek. It officially goes on sale Saturday, June 19.
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MapQuest 4 Mobile
MapQuest’s new free iPhone app — pretty much a head-on direct competitor to the Google Maps client that ships with the iPhone OS. Definitely worth checking out. â
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Apple Wants You to Buy a Mac Today
 After Apple announced Snow Leopard during the Philnote, but then said they would only ship it in September, a lot of people decided to wait on buying the new MacBook Pros. After all, what's the point of buying something with software that will be outdated in a few months? Well, Apple must have realized that they would take a sales hit for the next few months, because they have announced their "Up-to-Date" program, to incentivize buying sooner rather than later. read more
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SATA Speeds Slower on New MacBook Pros
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Blobman golf improvement tool for Mac OS X swings to version 2.0
Posted by Dennis SellersBlobmanLabs has updated Blobman, the golf swing improvement tool for Mac OS X and Windows, to version 2.0. It's a traces based, golf improvement aid designed to encourage proper motion to better define and polish a golf stroke.
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DiskLibrary for Mac OS X gets maintenance update
Posted by Dennis SellersObvious Matter has updated DiskLibrary, a media cataloging application for Mac OS X, to version 1.9.3. The new version is a maintenance release that offers bug fixes and improvements.
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Samsung's Omnia family hands-on, Samsung Jet and Pixon 12 come along for the ride
Samsung just pulled a bit of a "Samsung" and completely blew out its Omnia lineup. We just got some face time with the new Omnia II, Omnia Pro, Omnia Lite and the Omnia-inspired Jet, along with the Pixon 12 -- which runs the same in-house Samsung OS as the Jet, but packs a 12 megapixel camera. It's hard not to notice the stunning AMOLED screens on these phones, especially up against the dull-by-comparison Omnia Lite with its petty LCD. Unfortunately, while the build quality is good and the specs are certainly all there, all the phones were fairly slow in regular operation. The Jet and Pixon were passable (and the Jet certainly ought to be, with an 800MHz "application processor"), but we can't imagine anybody finding any pleasure in the molasses Windows Mobile 6.1 experiences on the Omnia trio. The Jet has a fun little 3D UI "cube" gimmick, which involves the pointless spinning of a cube to access different media apps, but most of what we saw was pretty standard TouchWiz. We did like the speed of Pixon's camera, which does a Pre-style trick of sending photo processing duties to the background so you can snap another photo with little delay in between -- it's also pretty good at auto focus and color accuracy for a phone, but we won't be trading in our regular point and shoot in the near term. None of the phones we looked at had network access, so we weren't able to test out the WebKit browsers, but it sounds like a major win for the Jet and Pixon. Let's just work on that Omnia responsiveness a bit, yeah Samsung? Perhaps Windows Mobile 6.5 (the Omnia II and Omnia Pro are 6.5-ready) will help.Gallery: Samsung's Omnia family hands-on, Samsung Jet and Pixon 12 come along for the rideFiled under: Cellphones, HandheldsSamsung's Omnia family hands-on, Samsung Jet and Pixon 12 come along for the ride originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Jun 2009 13:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Snow Leopard: Party like it's 1998
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, WWDC, Apple, Apple History, Snow Leopard On October 17, 1998 Apple released Mac OS 8.5, the first operating system that ran solely on Macintoshes with PowerPC processors. As far as system software upgrades go, this was the end of the line for any Mac built before the Power Macintosh 6100, introduced in March 1994. Earlier Macs ran on some variation of 680x0 processors and were supported mostly via emulation in a PowerPC environment. Emulation works, but it also slows things down. By 1998, Apple decided it just couldn't support 680X0 emulation for a number of reasons, but chiefly among them was speed. What happened was just what you would expect. In user groups, USENET and the Internet (which was only starting to explode), apoplectic non-PowerPC Mac owners threatened class action lawsuits and the rending of garments. Of course, most Power Mac users loved the newfound speed introduced in Mac OS 8.5, thanks to code optimized for PowerPC processors and jettisoned emulation support. It took Apple only four years to introduce the PowerPC chip and make any Mac without it obsolete. Technology moved on. In September Apple will release Snow Leopard, which will only run on Intel based Macs, thus cutting off PowerPC support. This time it took eleven years from inception to extinction (well, three for the Intel transition), but even so I can hear the hue and cry machine cranking up. Once again, the major reason for dropping legacy support is speed. Technology has moved on. Whenever something like this happens there is a potential for a marketing meltdown, but this time Apple is doing something brilliant. It is going to sell Snow Leopard for $29. When I saw this on the video stream of the WWDC keynote address my jaw dropped, my eyes glazed and only later did it start making sense to me. Apple first introduced Mac OS X in 2001, and excluding the free update to Mac OS X 10.1 from Mac OS X 10.0, a new version of the OS has been released roughly every 18 months, always at a price of $129. The sales pitch is always the same: with each new version, OS X gets new features and an "enhanced computing experience" which largely depended upon how much you like the new features. Mac OS X 10.6 will be the fifth major release in eight years, and some users are complaining about feature overload. There will always be users who want four ways to do the same thing, but for others, feature-laden releases are overwhelming and the glimmer and excitement of a new OS X release has faded. What a perfect time to work under the hood, set up the core of the operating system for the future and stabilize what's already there! But of course you can't make everyone happy. I would expect a large group of users to not be mollified by a nicer QuickTime and an improvement to Stacks. In effect, where's the beef? The beef is under the hood this time.Continue reading Snow Leopard: Party like it's 1998TUAWSnow Leopard: Party like it's 1998 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 15 Jun 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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lafcpug to celebrate 9th birthday on June 17
Posted by Dennis SellersThe Los Angeles Final Cut Pro User Group will celebrate its ninth anniversary on Wednesday, June 17, at the Gallery Theater in Hollywood, California, beginning at 7 pm.
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Apple begins shipping first iPhone 3G S pre-orders
Posted by Dennis SellersApple has begun shipping its new iPhone 3G S handsets to customers who were among the first to place their pre-orders last week following the handset's introduction last week at the 2009 Apple Worldwide Developer Conference, reports AppleInsider.
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Font Changes Coming to Mac OS X Snow Leopard
Chris Foresman reports on the findings of Chinese student Jjgod Jiang on the font-related changes in Snow Leopard: the light and strong sub-pixel anti-aliasing options are now gone; some of the system fonts are now shipping as .ttc (TrueType Collection) files instead of .dfonts; and a bit more on Menlo, the new default monospace coding font. (Contrary to Foresman’s report, though, BBEdit does not ship with a Bitstream Vera Sans variant; it ships with Consolas.) â
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Best Buy Accepting Pre-Orders of iPhone 3G S
Best Buy began accepting pre-orders on June 12. You have to physically show up at the Best Buy with a $50 deposit in order to reserve your shiny new iPhone. Unfortunately, Best Buy can't guarantee that you're iPhone will arrive on June 19, so they're creating an appointment list just in case a reschedule is needed. read more
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Adobe updates Acrobat.com
Posted by Dennis Sellers Adobe has announced that Acrobat.com has moved out of public beta and will offer two new paid subscription services that add capacity and capabilities for intensive business use. Since Acrobat.com first launched in June 2008, and Adobe says that five million people have signed up to use the innovative service,...
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iWebTemplate releases new RapidWeaver themes
Posted by Dennis SellersiWebTemplate, in cooperation with theme designer Adam Merrifield, has introduced new themes for a href=”http://www.realmacsoftware.com”TARGET=”_blank”>RapidWeaver 4, the web site creation application for Mac OS X from Realmac Software.
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Article: iPhone Gems: Circuit_strike.one, Prey Invasion, Real Tennis 2009 + Star Defense
Our flat B rating is, in a phrase, “good but not great:” an indication of a piece of software or hardware that justifies its price tag but doesn't thrill for it. This week, for the first time since we've been reviewing iPhone games, all four of the titles we look at in iPhone Gems rate the same flat B—interesting despite the fact that they're from completely different genres, have different price tags, and approach…
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Microsoft Stops Paying for Employeesâ iPhones
Dan Frommer reports on Microsoft’s latest cost-saving measure: For instance, Microsoft won’t pay for its employees’ Apple iPhone data service plans anymore, even if they’re used significantly for work purposes. Nor will it pay for Research In Motion BlackBerry service, or a new Palm Pre. Instead, it will only reimburse data plans for Microsoft Windows Mobile-powered smartphones. On the one hand, it surprises me that Microsoft ever paid for service for non-Windows phones. But on the other hand, man, look at what a piece of crap Windows Mobile is today. â
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NIMF Backs ESA On iPhone Game Ratings, ESRB Says Bring It On
Support is growing for some kind of ratings system for the games found in Apple's App Store for their iPhone and iPod touch platform. Adding their voice to those already calling for ratings implementation, including the ESA and the ESRB, is the National Institute on Media and the Family (NIMF), a not-for-profit organization dedicated to “watch[ing] what our kids watch,” or basically to conduct research on the effects (both positive and negative) of media on children. Unlike the ESRB, which, as at least one commenter pointed out in a previous post, may have a vested interest in pushing Apple to adopt its ratings system, NIMF simply wants some kind of ratings system in place to protect children, but not necessarily an ESRB-controlled solution. Letting someone else handle App Store ratings would take a big bite out of the ESRB's dominance of electronic game rating authority, which currently extends to all major platforms. The one exception are Microsoft's Community Games (soon to be renamed “Indie Games”), which receive a rating as part of a peer review process. These ratings don't work with the Xbox's automated content blockers, but they do come in handy if you're using parental discretion instead of locking down your console. For their part, the ESRB is still pushing to provide ratings for the platform, arguing to everyone and no one in particular over the weekend that not only can they scale to deal with the massive influx of work rating every single iPhone game would entail, but that they can do so at a cost that isn't prohibitive to Apple and their development partners. That's possible, according to the organization, since their usual fee gets discounted up to 80 percent for any game that costs less than $250,000 to develop, which represents a fair chunk of the App Store crowd. They also claim that any suggestions that they may be after Apple for the considerable cash it would bring in are unfounded. Instead, speaking to Kotaku, they discuss their “actual” motivation: Apple's integration of ESRB ratings into its parental controls for iPhone games would afford parents the ability to block those video games that carry an ESRB rating utilizing the same tool they are being offered to block video content that has been rated by the MPAA or carries an official TV rating. For what it's worth, I don't think they're cash-motivated in this instance either. But their eagerness to answer objections raised not by Apple, but by forum posters and online tech writers is a clear indication that they are afraid of losing relevance if Apple bypasses them and implements a solution of their own. Still, there is something to be said for cross-platform standardization, in terms of helping parents out when interpreting ratings. Whatever the outcome, this could be a watershed moment in how game content is rated and controlled.
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Microsoft: No iPhone reimbursements for workers
Microsoft has found a powerful incentive to get people to use Windows Mobile--at least those within its own ranks. The software maker has stopped paying for cellular data plans for those using BlackBerries, iPhones and all manner of non-Microsoft devices. Plenty of Microsoft workers still have an iPhone, but as ...
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iPhone 3G S begins shipping to customers
Customers report shipping notices from Apple confirming the iPhone 3G S is on the way.
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The iPhones are Coming, The iPhones are Coming
With only a few days separating us from our brand new iPhones, this morning's email from Apple was like manna from the Gods. You can pick which God or Gods, we don't care over here. Armed with our tracking numbers, it's a good bet we'll eventually crash the UPS server as Friday approaches. We're imagining our iPhones sipping tropical drinks on the deck of the shipping vessel. Classy.
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OS 3.0 compatible apps already trickling in
Filed under: Gaming, iTS, iPhone, App Store, iPod touchSome of our readers have informed us that Tap Tap Revenge (iTunes store link) has been updated to version 2.6, boasting compatiblity with iPhone OS 3.0. This is most likely merely the first of many apps that will see updates in the coming weeks, but it's interesting that Tapulous has unleashed this update so far in advance of OS 3.0's release. If you are running OS 3.0, upon launching the new version of Tap Tap it will ask you for permission to send push notifications to your device. If you allow them, a new category called Notifications will appear in your device's main settings, which will allow you to toggle push notifications on or off. Additionally, it appears that each app will have individual settings for badges and alerts. It's not likely that Tapulous will be sending any push notifications just yet, as Apple has yet to throw the novelty-sized Frankenstein knife switch to activate push services. It's also unclear at this point what type of push services Tap Tap Revenge may offer after that switch is thrown. It is an interesting preview of things to come, however.TUAWOS 3.0 compatible apps already trickling in originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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'MacVoices' looks at the London Final Cut Pro SuperMeet
Posted by Dennis SellersOn the new MacVoices the co-producers of the Final Cut Pro User Group SuperMeets, Michael Horton and Daniel Berube, talk about the latest addition to their schedule, the upcoming first annual London Final Cut Pro SuperMeet.
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Samsung Jet packs an 800MHz processor, AMOLED display, featurephone OS
Samsung's busy launching a bunch of handsets across even more timezones right now, and in addition to all the Omnia updates, there's also the Jet, which is an interesting hybrid: it's got an 800MHz processor, five megapixel camera, 3.1-inch AMOLED screen, WebKit-based Dolfin browser and a host of media features including DivX support, but it's running TouchWiz 2.0, so it's not a proper smartphone. Yeah, it's weird, but we're sort of into it -- we'll see what's it's like in person.Filed under: CellphonesSamsung Jet packs an 800MHz processor, AMOLED display, featurephone OS originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Jun 2009 11:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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DarkAdapted for Mac OS X beefs up preferences features
Posted by Dennis Sellers DarkAdapted, an application program that controls screen gamma on any display, has been updated to version 2.3.5. The upgrade adds a “Load Shared Preferences” and “Save Shared Preferences” features.
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iPhone 3G S pre-orders start shipping, reservations estimated in the hundreds of thousands
We've got a number of tips this morning about lucky iPhone 3G S pre-orderers getting shipment notifications from Apple. Naturally, with a high profile launch like this we're guessing Apple has done all it can to ensure shipments won't slip through earlier than the June 19th launch date, but hopefully at least few folks will get lucky -- and at least they've got one of the only guarantees of a launch day phone going. In other news, an anonymous Apple Store employee has done some homework and tallied up average reservation numbers at other US stores -- he estimates about 800 people on average are on the reservation list per Apple Store (ranging from a couple hundred to well over a thousand), which amounts to about 200,000 reservations as of now, a number he believes could double before launch. There's no way to back that number up, but it sounds fairly rational. Finally, the iPhone 3G S firmware download link has made its way into the wild. Sure, it doesn't do you any good if you don't have an iPhone 3G S, but we thought you just might want to know all the same.[Thanks to everyone who sent these in]Read - iPhone 3G S shipping noticeRead - iPhone 3G S firmwareFiled under: Cellphones, HandheldsiPhone 3G S pre-orders start shipping, reservations estimated in the hundreds of thousands originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Jun 2009 11:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Counterpoint: AT&T isn't cheating iPhone 3G customers
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Apple, iPhoneIn my youth, I sold cell phones for Verizon. It was not a rare occurrence to have a customer sign up for a new account and get their free phone, only to come back a week later and tell me they dropped it in a toilet and wanted another one. They were shocked when the phone they got for free just a few days before now cost them close to $200. To a lesser extent, the same thing is happening with iPhone 3G owners wishing to upgrade to the 3G S for the subsidized price. A year ago, 3G owners bought a $600 cell phone (assuming we're talking about the 8GB model) for just shy of $200. The 2-year contract guarantees that AT&T makes their $400 back over the length of your contract. So far, 3G owners are only about 1 year into their contract, so they've really only paid off about half of their subsidy to AT&T. Most carriers would stop there, and offer no additional incentives until you've come close to reaching the end of your contract. AT&T is being about as generous as they can be by offering 3G owners half of the subsidy after completing half of their contract. Once 3G owners have fulfilled a year of their contract, they can get the 3G S for the base price ($199) plus half the subsidy ($200) for a grand total of $399. Read on for some fun cell phone contract math.Continue reading Counterpoint: AT&T isn't cheating iPhone 3G customersTUAWCounterpoint: AT&T isn't cheating iPhone 3G customers originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 15 Jun 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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CrashPlan now tweets your backup status and alerts via Twitter
Posted by Dennis SellersCode 42 Software announces a new version of CrashPlan, their personal backup product specifically engineered for laptops. Among the new features and enhancements is integration with Twitter.
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Clarification: Your older MacBook May Not Support Multi-Touch After All
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Apple wants its case against Psystar to proceed, bankruptcy or not
Posted by Dennis SellersApple has asked a court to allow its case against Psystar to proceed, despite the cloner maker's application for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The cloner recently filed for bankruptcy and purportedly owes Apple US$75,000.
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Some analysts think Apple's price cuts last week risk will mean margin pressure
Posted by Dennis Sellers Apple can't win sometimes, at least in the eyes of analysts. Earlier this year the company was criticized for its products being too high in the current tough economy. Last week Apple cut iPhone and laptop prices, so now some analysts are saying the company's margins are at risk with...
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Software protection solution, CodeMeter, ready for Snow Leopard
Posted by Dennis SellersAt last week's Apple World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC), Wibu-Systems presented the beta version of the CodeMeter software protection solution for Mac OS X 10.6 (“Snow Leopard”).
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News: Apple begins shipping iPhone 3G S pre-orders
Apple is now shipping pre-ordered iPhone 3G S units to customers for delivery on Friday. iLounge reader Kevin Hanson has posted screenshots of his Apple Store shipment notification for a 32GB white iPhone 3G S, and similar notifications are currently hitting other customers' accounts. While Kevin did not comment on tracking details, a separate report from AppleInsider indicates that the units are shipping out of Shenzhen, China, home to many…
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NVIDIA pops out five new mobile GPUs to fill invisible gaps in its 200M series lineup
NVIDIA is filling in what it presumes to be holes in its next-generation GPU lineup, adding the 40nm G210M, GT 230M, GT 240M and GTS 250M, with GDDR3 memory ranging from 512MB to 1GB, to its existing GTX 280M, GTX 260M and GTS 160M laptop graphics cards. Apparently the new cards sport "double the performance" and "half the power consumption" over the last generation of discrete GPUs they're replacing. The cards are SLI, HybridPower, CUDA, Windows 7 and DirectX 10.1 compatible, and all support PhysX other than the low-end G210M. Of course, with integrated graphics like the 9400M starting to obviate discrete graphics in the mid range -- even including Apple's latest low-end 15-inch MacBook Pro -- we're not sure what we'll do with eight different GPU options, but we suppose NVIDIA's yet-to-be-announced price sheet for these cards will make it all clear in time.Filed under: Gaming, LaptopsNVIDIA pops out five new mobile GPUs to fill invisible gaps in its 200M series lineup originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Jun 2009 10:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Apple still wants to get Psystar into court
Mac maker is asking a judge to change the stay on proceedings and require Psystar to show up in court this fall, despite the latter's bankruptcy filing.
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News: AT&T sells out of launch day iPhone 3G S pre-orders
AT&T has completely sold through its launch day supply of pre-order iPhone 3G S units, according to a new report. Citing an internal AT&T memo, Boy Genius Report claims that only pre-orders placed prior to Saturday, June 13 are expected to arrive at stores in time for a Friday morning pick-up, while customers placing pre-orders after that time should be told their order will arrive between 7-14 days from the order date. It is currently unclear…
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TextMate 2: He's working on it
Filed under: SoftwareFor fans of Macromates' flagship text editor, TextMate, the current version may be all they need. For the last three years, TextMate has been stuck at version 1.5 (and change). In a blog post yesterday titled "Working on It," however, developer Allan Odgaard talked about what's coming in TextMate 2.0. TextMate 2.0, according to Odgaard, is "taking shape" amid steady progress. It's not a small update, either: Odgaard says it's a "major undertaking with a long timeline" and he doesn't want to get people's hopes up about release dates or finished features just yet. He says most of the modules for the application are nine-tenths complete, and he uses 2.0 day-to-day. The front end, he says, needs work, and an alpha release may be ready "before too long."TUAWTextMate 2: He's working on it originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 15 Jun 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Apple Downgrading SATA in New MacBook Pros?
MacRumors is reporting on a discussion that is on fire with reports of a downgrade in SATA speeds for the new 13″ MacBook Pro, and the 15″ models as well. Apparently, System Profiler is now reporting a SATA speed of 1.5 gigabits, down from 3 gigabits on the new machines. While this change will not matter to anyone with a mechanical hard drive, or a low-end SSD, those using high-end SSDs like the Intel X-25M could see a performance decline. MacRumors forum member Shao was the first to post benchmarks from a 13″ unibody MacBook and a 13″ MacBook Pro, and the results are startling. 13" MacBook
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Artlandia SymmetryWorks, an Illustrator plug-in, updated
Posted by Dennis SellersArtlandia has updated Artlandia SymmetryWorks, the Illustrator plug-in for pattern design. There are now two versions of the plug-in:
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News: Belkin rolls out new cases for iPhone 3G, 3G S
Belkin has announced its new line of cases for the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3G S. Its new Grip Cases are made from silicone and feature form-fitting construction and different textured designs. The Grip lineup includes the Ergo ($30), which features contoured ridges for added grip and comfort, the Two-Toned Vector ($30), and the Vector Duo ($20). Also new are the company's BodyGuard cases, which are made using a combination of polycarbonate and…
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News: BBC: Apple threatened to sour relations over report
Concluding a report on Apple in the BBC technology program Click, which featured an extended segment on Apple's control over its employees, developers, and the media, presenter Spencer Kelly said that Apple was invited to participate in the program, but declined and threatened to sour relations with the program if it ran the segment. Click included two Apple-related segments in its 30-minute episode, one focused on announcements from the 2009…
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DataViz announces Documents to Go for the iPhone, iPod touch
Posted by Dennis Sellers DataViz has released its mobile Office suite application, Documents To Go, on the Apple App Store. The app allows iPhone and iPod touch users to view, edit and create Microsoft Word files, including Word 2007, and utilize a desktop application to provide two-way file synchronization.
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Bulk convert Safari's Web Archives to PDFs
I've been archiving web pages using Safari's one-file web archive format for a while. I was trying to figure out a bulk conversion method if I want to send these archives to Windows users, or switch to a different browser. It turns out that Scott Garner's Download URL as PDF Automator action can take web archive files from the Finder and will convert them to PDFs (in addition to its intended function of downloading pages off the web.) Just download the Automator action, then create a workflow with Find Finder Items hunting through your home directory for files that have the extension webarchive. That action should feed into Scott's action, and you're all set. The action has some options, including whether or not the PDF should be split into pages.
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Create a Numbers document listing all Safari bookmarks
You might find this AppleScript interesting and/or useful -- it opens a spreadsheet in Numbers of all of your Safari bookmarks. set the bookmarks_folderpath to the POSIX path of (path to "cach" from user domain) & "Metadata/Safari/Bookmarks/" tell application "System Events" set these_bookmark_filepaths to the POSIX path of every disk item of folder bookmarks_folderpath whose name extension is "webbookmark" -- generate book mark AppleScript list: {{bookmark 1 name, bookmark 1 URL}, {bookmark 1 name, bookmark 1 URL}, etc.} set the bookmarks_list to {} repeat with i from 1 to the count of these_bookmark_filepaths set this_bookmark_path to item i of these_bookmark_filepaths tell property list file th...
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Add URLs to Address Book contacts for use in Safari 4
A somewhat-hidden feature of Address Book is its ability to add a URL to a contact. This feature used in Safari 4, which has a special Bookmarks section for Address Book entries, where it will use URLs from Address Book contact records. (For instance, if you take a look a the Address Book entries in Safari 4's Bookmarks area, you will find that the Apple Inc. card has a home page associated with it.) It's not obvious how to accomplish this, as a Home Page field does not appear by default on a new blank card, nor when editing an old one or when adding fields using the green (+) button. The solution is in the Card Âť Add Field menu. From that menu, select the URL entry to add the field to any card. After entering a URL, it will then appear in Safari's Address Book bookmarks. [robg adds: This is a somewhat obvious hint, though we've run hints on using Add Field in the past. If you'd always like the URL field to appear on new cards, open Address Book's preferenc...
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Multi-touch coming to older MacBooks? Not so fast.
Filed under: Hardware, Hacks, Macbook Pro, MacBook, MacBook Air, Snow LeopardMac Life and Gizmodo are both reporting that Snow Leopard will add multi-touch gestures to all older MacBooks and MacBook Pros. This has gotten a lot of people's hopes up that three- and four-finger multi-touch gestures will be back-ported to all Apple portables that previously did not have them. Unfortunately, this is incorrect. Apples own information on Snow Leopard's enhancements reads, "All Mac notebooks with Multi-Touch trackpads now support three- and four-finger gestures." (emphasis added) This raises the question, what's the difference between a multi-touch trackpad and a regular one, and which models have it? The multi-touch trackpad was introduced with the first MacBook Air in early 2008. Not only does it allow two-finger scrolling like older models, it also allows advanced three-finger gestures like swiping to go back in Safari. One month later, the early 2008 MacBook Pro received the same trackpad, with the same gestures. The multi-touch trackpad gains this new functionality because it has an embedded controller chip, identical to the one in the iPhone and iPod Touch, which allows advanced input from more than two fingers at once. Later, the unibody MacBooks and MacBook Pros debuted with multi-touch trackpads, but also introduced new four-finger gestures, which will not be officially supported in the older MacBook Airs and MacBook Pros until Snow Leopard's release. The original MacBook Air and early 2008 MacBook Pro are the only machines which will gain additional gestures via Snow Leopard. The only reason these notebook models are able to gain these gestures via software updates, while earlier MacBook Pros and all plastic MacBooks are not, is because they possess the multi-touch controller chip in their trackpads. Just to break it down, this is a list of the only, and I mean only, notebooks that support multi-touch gestures, either now or after Snow Leopard: MacBook Air (all models) Early 2008 MacBook Pro Late 2008 17" MacBook Pro Unibody MacBook (all models) Unibody MacBook Pro (all models) If you have a MacBook Pro manufactured before early 2008 or any plastic MacBook, then Snow Leopard or not, multi-touch isn't coming your way... Continue reading Multi-touch coming to older MacBooks? Not so fast.TUAWMulti-touch coming to older MacBooks? Not so fast. originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 15 Jun 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Belkin launches new cases for the iPhone 3G S, iPhone 3G
Posted by Dennis SellersBelkin has launched new cases for the iPhone 3G S and the iPhone 3G. All cases (except the BodyGuards) are currently available in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. The BodyGuard cases will be available in mid-July.
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News: AT&T: No extra cost for iPhone MMS messaging
AT&T will not charge iPhone users with text messaging plans anything extra for MMS messages, according to a FAQ list (PDF Link) posted online. Support for MMS messaging will be included in iPhone OS 3.0, which is launching this Wednesday, June 17. Unfortunately, AT&T will not have its network ready to provide MMS service to iPhone users on that date, and has only said that the feature would be activated “later this summer.” In…
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Appleâs Latest Retail Store Features Interesting Changes
This weekend featured the grand opening of Apple's latest retail store, Scottsdale Quarter, in beautiful Scottsdale, Ariz. As evidenced by looking at the front of the building, this particular store quickly stands out among the rest of Apple's retail lineup. Hello, New Architecture A few weeks ago, Ron Johnson was featured in USA Today discussing new changes that were coming to retail stores, including more Genius Bar space and larger tables to feature even more products. As you can see, the Scottsdale Quarter store is one of the first new retail store to incorporate some of these new design elements. With features such as a front and rear made of all glass and a beautiful 75-foot skylight that spans the length of the store, Apple has clearly designed this location to take advantage of Arizona's abundance of natural light. Additionally, the 20-foot ceilings and spacious entry area help to accent the more open feel of the store. The Return of the Family Room Concept The back of the store is similar to most stores but features a unique split Genius Bar with tables in the middle for One to One sessions. Recent store designs have utilized the back walls near the Genius Bar to feature additional third-party products, but this departure moves Apple's idea of the “Family Room” back to its core with the rear section of the store entirely devoted to services. The split Genius Bar should help alleviate crowding during busy times and allow the store flexibility to run one bar as a Mac queue and another for iPod and iPhone queues if needed. The first three images below are from Apple.com. A special thanks to photographer Brian Hancock for the opening day photos; you can view more from his web site.
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AT&T won't charge iPhone users with text messaging plans extra for MMS messages
Posted by Dennis SellersGood news for iPhone 3G S purchasers: AT&T AT&T won't charge iPhone users with text messaging plans anything extra for MMS messages, according to a FAQ list posted online (and as reported by iLounge).
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Citi: RIM Will Beat Forecast
Research In Motion Ltd. (RIMM) shot the rapids with the the launch of Palm Inc.'s (PALM) Pre smartphone and the unveiling of the new iPhone 3G S (AAPL) last week, but the BlackBerry maker has emerged in good shape ahead of its June 18 reporting date, say analysts at Citigroup Global Markets. Analyst Jim Suva in note to clients on Friday:We think that RIMM has cleared the rapids and is moving into calmer waters. The risks are mitigated now.
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Macsimum review: Autodesk Stitcher Unlimited 2009 is for serious panorama makers
Posted by Dennis SellersBy Dave Huss Autodesk Stitcher Unlimited 2009 from Autodesk is photo-stitching software for producing panoramas and more. I've made hundreds of panoramas using the Photoshop Photomerge feature and have been happy with the results, so my main questions are: Will Stitcher Unlimited—which is Mac and Windows compatible—“play well” with Photoshop,...
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Queensland University of Technology doesn't recommend glossy screens
Posted by Dennis SellersThe Queensland University of Technology has published health and safety considerations for Mac glass or high gloss monitor screens. You can read all about it here.
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Apple, an iHome could tackle the issue of dificult home network set-ups
Posted by Dennis SellersI've long hoped for an Apple home server product (the iHome, perhaps?). And a recent consumer survey conducted by ABI Research reinforces my thoughts that it would be a very good idea.
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Glad Works Makes Marketing Moves Through iPhone Apps
What do you do when you're a newly independent public radio station and your signal is only reaching 75 percent of your home state? For WRNI, Rhode Island's only public radio station, the answer was to turn to its advertising agency. The agency, Providence-based Glad Works, is glad the station did, because it opened up a whole new world of opportunity for the firm. "We were aware that NPR and its member stations were trying to figure out how to deliver local and national headlines on a cellphone," WRNI Station Manager Joe O'Connor told MacNewsWorld.
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Big in Japan: Apple Retail Experience
The Kelly Letter owned shares of Apple (AAPL) stock before I owned an Apple computer. Our thesis was that the internet has unleashed the freedom to work on any computer and that such freedom would lead more people to choose the elegance and power of Apple's products. My research said so and we followed the conclusion in the portfolio, but I didn't immediately follow it in my own life. My office continued using PCs and I personally continued using a PC notebook.That all just changed when I bought a MacBook Pro 17-inch at the Apple Store in Ginza, Tokyo. Most new Mac users rave about the solidity of the product, the no-bloatware out-of-box experience, and the sheer beauty of Apple's technology. What I want to focus on today, however, is Apple's superb retail experience.
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Zevrix releases LinkOptimizer 3.3.8 for Adobe InDesign
Posted by Dennis SellersZevrix Solutions has released version 3.3.8 of LinkOptimizer, an upgrade to the workflow automation solution to optimize InDesign jobs. Sharpen filters are now applied to layered images in Photoshop.
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Mac OS Ken: 06.15.2009
Munster: Wall Street Is Missing the MacBook Price Drops / Safari 4 Tops 11M Downloads in 3 Days (6M for Windows) / T-Mobile Netherlands Posts iPhone 3G S Ram and Processor Specs / iLounge: Apple and AT&T Outline iPhone 3G S Plans for Friday / BGR: AT&T Sells Out of Pre-Order iPhone 3G Ss / Macworld UK Poll: Nearly Half to Give iPhone 3G S a Miss (for Now) / Sprint Says It Sold a Lot of Palm Pres on First Weekend (Though it Doesnât Define âLotâ) / Analysts: Pre Sales Likely 60k or Under for Opening Weekend / Former Apple Exec Rubinstein Named Palm Chairman and CEO / Apple v. Psystar: Apple Says the Show Must Go On / Apple Insider: Testing Said to be Underway for Mac OS X 10.5.8 / Australian University: Appleâs Glossy Screens Could Be Bad for Your Back / Microsoft Updates Office 2004, Office 2008, and Open XML Converter for Mac / Microsoft Reimburses Employee Smartphone Data Plans for Windows Mobile Only
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Inside the iPhone 3G S: Initial Speculation
It usually takes a few days or weeks after a product hits the store shelves before there is a public tear-down and reports about its innards (and manufacturing costs). Jumping the gun, and working off “insider sources” instead of an actual look inside, several sites began sketching out the details and performance specs on the new iPhone 3G S internals this week. Many of the details have been rumored for a while and are probably accurate but it'll be at least a few weeks before any actual dissection of the phone can confirm or debunk them. Still, for those looking for early insight into where things are, or where they might be going, here is some of the gist from the hardware reports:
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Apple could see margins at risk with price cuts
Apple Inc. has typically commanded premium prices for its products, and earned better profits than its rivals as a result. But recent price cuts on Mac laptops and the iPhone may pinch its profit margins, which have long been the envy of the consumer electronics space.
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Push notifications go live on iPhone courtesy of Tap Tap Revenge
iPhone OS 3.0 may not be available to the masses for a couple days yet, but that's not stopping Tapulous (nor Apple's App Store overlords, apparently) from rolling out a new version of its ridiculously popular Tap Tap Revenge that's fully ready to take advantage of push notifications right here and right now. We've taken the new build for a spin, and in brief, it works as designed -- notification times ranged from near instantaneous to just under a minute. One of our editors here was testing on a cellular connection and the other was on a SIM-less iPhone 3G running just WiFi, so it looks like this setup will work pretty seamlessly regardless of what kind of connection you happen to be enjoying / tolerating / loathing at the moment. Follow the break for a quick video demo.[Thanks, Brandon] Continue reading Push notifications go live on iPhone courtesy of Tap Tap RevengeFiled under: Cellphones, HandheldsPush notifications go live on iPhone courtesy of Tap Tap Revenge originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Jun 2009 02:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments