- Apple releases more WWDC 2006 videos on iTunes
Filed under: Video, WWDC, Developer, iPhone
Apple must be happy with having the WWDC06 video sessions available via iTunes for ADC members, as another set of videos has just been rolled out for developers. This latest collection includes:
- Graphics & Media State of the Union
- Welcome to Xcode
- Taking Advantage of Leopard Features in Cocoa
- Mac OS X State of the Union
- IT State of the Union
But don't get too comfy with last year's programming; lest ye been living under a rock for the last year or so, we probably don't need to remind you WWDC07 is fast approaching, and more and more signs are pointing towards a debut of both the iPhone and Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard - especially since Apple said the big cat is still on schedule.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
- Apple TV overnight upgrade services debut
Filed under: Hardware, Hacks, Apple TV
Worried about ruining more than the warranty of your Apple TV whilst trying the DIY hard drive upgrade? Then why risk getting your hands dirty - TechRestore and MacService are more than happy to take care of the heavy lifting for you. Both companies have recently debuted overnight Apple TV hard drive upgrade services that begin with 60GB drives and go all the way up to 160GB. While both companies are fairly hush-hush about what this service does to your warranty (hint: say your goodbyes before shipping the device off), the good news is that drives they install do carry warranties of 3-5 years.
Looking through the two services reveals some interesting differences. First, MacService more or less offers all-inclusive packages - overnight shipping through and through, with a single list of prices laid out to keep things simple. TechRestore, on the other hand, offers a couple of shipping options and seems to be slightly cheaper (especially when choosing the full overnight option) in price, though I've never had experience with either company to see if 'you pay for what you get' (a Dave Matthews twist on the ol' adage) holds true.
Both services are live and kicking, so feel free to comment on your experience if you take advantage of the upgrade.Permalink | Email this | Comments
- MLB highlights coming to iTunes Store
Filed under: iTS, iTunes, Apple
With opening day right around the corner, Major League Baseball and Apple have announced a deal for game highlights to appear on the iTunes Store. Each day there will be a 25 minutes "MLB.com Daily Rewind" highlight show and each week two "'Games of the Week,' featuring full versions of the best games from the National and American Leagues." Each of these games will be $1.99 (compared to $3.95 per game through MLB's Digital Download Service) though there will also be a Season Pass of the "Game of the Week" for $19.99 and a Multi-Pass of the "Daily Rewind" for $7.99 per month.
MLB.TV is probably the best online sports offering, so real baseball fans will probably want to go there instead as it allows you to stream "every 2007 regular season out-of-market game" live plus a lot more. However, this iTunes deal looks interesting, and with MLB under fire for the exclusive DirecTV deal, more media choice is a good thing. We can hope this will be a success and cause MLB to expand their iTunes offering with more games, etc.
To whet your appetite for the season the iTunes Store is now offering a 2007 Season Preview for free download (iTunes Store link).Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
- iMultiMix 8 USB with iPod recording
Filed under: Audio, iPod Family, iTunes, Podcasting
According manufacturer Alesis the iMultiMix 8 USB is the "first mixer to fuse together professional quality mixing, 3 band per channel EQ, guitar/line inputs, built-in FX and iPod recording in a single, intuitive package." The cool thing is that once you've completed your recording you just sync the iPod as normal and your new masterpiece is automatically added to your iTunes library, where you can find it for further editing, etc. The recordings are made in stereo at 44.1 or 48kHz either direct to iPod or to your Mac via USB. Anyway, for the budding musician or multi-channel podcaster this looks like it could be a great piece of kit. The Alesis website lists the iMultiMix 8 USB as "coming soon," but according to iLounge it "is scheduled to ship in Q3 2007 for $499."
[via Infinite Loop]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
- TUAW Tip: temporarily prevent your iPod from syncing
Filed under: iPod Family, Software, Productivity, Tips and tricks, iTunes, TUAW Tip
Out of the box, the iPod is designed to work seamlessly with iTunes, so the system automatically syncs (by default) when you connect your iPod. This is typically fine for most users, but what about those times when you don't want this tag team to kick into gear for one reason or another? Perhaps you just had a library goof-up, and you need to use iPodRip to recover some playlists or media files before iTunes syncs and blows either away, or perhaps you're just in a hurry and don't have time to sync down that new 1.5GB movie you just bought, though you you still need to dump some files over for work or class. Whatever the scenario, there are a couple of simple ways to arbitrarily prevent iTunes from working its magic on a case-by-case basis.
The first method, I feel, is the least intrusive and most useful: assuming iTunes is running, all you need to do is hold down cmd+opt (possibly ctrl+alt on Windows, though I don't have a machine to test that on) when connecting your iPod to make iTunes look the other way and not begin a sync. The iPod should mount on your desktop and even appear in iTunes, bit it simply won't sync. You're free to go about your business and eject the iPod as quickly as it mounted, with no argument from iTunes.
The second method assumes that you have enabled hard drive use for your iPod, and you don't have iTunes set to automatically start when you plug the 'pod in. In this case, simply quitting iTunes when plugging in your iPod will solve your problem altogether. Simply do your business and eject to get on your way quickly.Permalink | Email this | Comments
- Google Notifier update brings 'Quick Add to Calendar' right-click menu
Filed under: Software, Internet Tools
A recent update to the official Google Notifier app has added a slick (and apparently Mac-only) feature that should make it easier to add events to Google Calendar while you work. A new "Quick Add to Google Calendar" contextal menu item does exactly what you might think - it allows you to right-click a selected piece of text in most Cocoa apps and create a new event in gCal from it, set for the specific time you used said option. Now this might not offer the flexibility of the Google Calendar Quicksilver module we mentioned, but it's a really handy way to rapidly fire off events based on information and text you're already dealing with throughout the day, and you can easily visit your Google Calendar to organize and manage their specific details at your convenience.
There only way I caught this update, however, was downloading what I perceived to be the latest Notifier from Google on a new machine. Strangely, upon first running the Notifier, I was prompted to download an update which is what brought on this new feature. If you haven't been prompted yet, try restarting your Notifier to see if it kicks the update process into gear.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
- Cha-Ching update brings fixes, 1.0 by April
Filed under: Software, Productivity
Cha-Ching, Midnight Apps' handy Quicken-killer that takes the pain out of managing your money, has received a minor update to v0.5.2. While the notable changes like UI improvements, bug fixes and confirmation dialogs when deleting items aren't much to write home about, the third change from the emailed press release is what has me excited: "upgraded database in preparation for version 1.0." I spoke with Juan Alvarez, lead developer of Cha-Ching, about an ETA for 1.0, and it's apparently slated to land before the end of April with some rocking new features and changes. Cha-Ching itself has received a major overhaul in preparation for the big 1.0, so stay tuned for more details and some pre-release screenshots as soon as we can publish them.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
- Beta Beat: ATVFiles
Filed under: Beta Beat, Apple TV
So this morning I downloaded a copy of the new Apple TV custom plug-in called ATVFiles. It's an Apple TV "appliance", which means that it runs directly in your Apple TV Finder rather than as a separate an OS X application. I copied it over to my Apple TV, installed it in Finder (in /System/Library/CoreServices) and relaunched my system. I was delighted to find it show up listed in the main menu, and when selected it correctly listed the contents of my /Users/frontrow/Movies folder. Unfortunately, I could not actually get the movie to play (early days yet!) but this looks like a huge step forward for Apple TV users. For what it's worth, I do have Perian installed and I can play the movie back in VLC.
Thanks, Aron T.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Cult of Mac
The day has finally arrived! 
