Wednesday, April 4, 2007

The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) (10 сообщений)

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  • Google Desktop for the Mac 1.0

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    Today Google announced the availability of Google Desktop for the Mac (download now available from Google's Mac OS X software page). What's Google Desktop, you ask? It is an application from Google, which indexes the contents of your hard drive (including applications, most files, PDFs, as well as web histories from Safari, Firefox, and Camino) and makes it searchable a la Spotlight. Our PC using friends have had this application for awhile, and it is nice to see that Google hasn't forgotten about us Mac users.

    Google Desktop for the Mac is a Universal application, requires OS X 10.4 or later, and is free.

    I know what you're thinking, 'Why do I need Google Desktop if I already have Spotlight?' That's a good question, and since our friends at Google sent me a copy of Google Desktop to test drive I can answer it for you. Check out our gallery for a bunch of pictures, and read on for a full feature run down and my thoughts on Google Desktop.

    Gallery: Google Desktop for Mac

    The Google Desktop installerInstall progressUsage statsAuthorizingGoogle Updater

    Continue reading Google Desktop for the Mac 1.0

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  • iPod Film Festival entries online

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    This year, The Flux is hosting its second annual iPod Film Festival, the only festival dedicated to short films formatted specifically for Apple's portable media device. The top 25 finalists have been made available for viewing and download on The Flux's website or through iTunes, with entries in the Student, Indie and Kitchen Sink film categories. Don't be surprised to see at least one Mac-themed entry in there. Anyway, here's a good reason to fire up that iPod for some good ol' short film watching. Hmm... perhaps next year the fest will go meta, and only feature films about the iPod itself, formatted for the iPod?

    [via MacNN]
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  • Desktopple - powerful desktop hiding utility

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    For podcasters and clutterbugs alike, there are a number of tools that help you hide your desktop, briefly change its wallpaper and digitally stuff all your icons in the closet to help your screencast shine and impress the boss with your ninja-like file management skills. Desktopple from FoggyNoggin Software (what a name for a software company) is just such a tool, and I'm an inch away from buying a license as it goes above and beyond merely hiding my messy desktop habits. As you can see, Desktopple still gives you easy access to your desktop files while hiding them, and it offers 'Window Cleaning,' the ability to automatically hide certain applications after a specified period of inactivity. It can also be set to hide your desktop when you start certain applications, and even restore it when you quit said apps. Toss in support for separately configuring the hiding of multiple desktops, ignoring Exposé (so your desktop remains hidden) hotkey and Automator support, and you can consider me sold as soon as I can explain yet another software purchase to my wife.

    Desktopple costs $17, and a free 15-day trial is available from FoggyNoggin Software.

    [via simongate's TUAW Flickr Desktops Pool submission]
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  • Do you want to rent your music?

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    For $15/month you can load up a Zune with a wide (although not exhaustive) catalog of rental music. Your music plays back for the length of your subscription and your credit card is automatically charged each month until you cancel. Of course, for the same $180/year you can purchase quite a few iTunes albums and singles (or go completely wacky at a used CD store or swapping service like lala.com), but you can't jump onto an actual iPod subscription model.

    Subscription models are surprisingly nice. All the music you want, when you want it, without much in the way of limits. If you feel like listening to Nirvana one day and Barry Manilow the next, a subscription model means you can sample without commitment. It's a perfect match to the "for now but not forever" mindset. Sure, if you find something you absolutely love, you can go out and buy it but subscriptions give you the aural equivalent of an all-you-can-eat buffet (and, sometimes, a similar need for antacid.) With a subscription, Billboard's top music can always be in your pocket.

    If an iTunes subscription model was available, would you be willing to try it out? How much would you agree to spend per month? Less than Microsoft's $14.95? More? What dollar amount would you put on such a service? And if iTunes left out album-only tracks the way Zune Marketplace does, would this be an insurmountable barrier to you?

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  • Apple sends out iPhone email

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    Ooh, the anticipation is mounting! When the iPhone was first introduced, I (and a few other TUAW bloggers) signed up to receive notification of the devices availability. Today, a few of us received the following email from Apple. It features an image of the phone, a link to the iPhone homepage and the message:

    "Talk to you soon. Thanks for signing up. You'll be the first to hear the latest about iPhone - coming this June. That gives you just enough time to think of ways to break the news to your current phone."

    Sounds good, Apple!

    Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
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  • Four-eyed iPod dock

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    It looks like sometime in April, for a mere €249 ($335), you can recharge your U2 special edition (or, if you like, standard) iPod in a color-coordinated dock with bendable speakers that watch every move you make.

    I can't decide if the Dragon I iPod dock looks like a post-modernist flower arrangment or a deranged alien with color-coordinated eyestalks. None of my googling turned up any vendors actually selling this baby--presales or actual product. So if you see one of these in the wild, let us know.

    Update: Nik Fletcher snapped pics of the dock at September's Apple Expo Paris and shares them here and here.
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  • Will iTunes truly support interoperability?

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    Earlier this week, Apple and EMI broke some serious ground in the digital music industry by announcing DRM-free music across the entirety of EMI's catalog, beginning with the iTunes Store. In the conference call, Steve Jobs cited interoperability as a key reason for the move; songs downloaded from the iTunes Store can only be played on iTunes, the iPod and other Apple products, and the record labels EMI decided to do something about this handicap. Everyone, from consumers to the EU, have been asking for the abolishment of DRM, and reactions to Steve Jobs' Thoughts on Music essay (which more or less agreed with us) ran the gamut, from Cory Doctorow's shoot-from-the-hip-and-not-from-the-head call-out to general intrigue and interest in what could actually happen to an industry when one of its front-runners calls for change. Regardless of what was said, EMI has taken the first step into a world of selling legitimate digital music sans-DRM through the iTunes Store. The big question, however, is how truly interoperable iTunes will allow these new downloads will be.

    iTunes Store songs are in the AAC file format, not MP3. While this arguably standard/non-standard file type is considered by some to be proprietary to Apple and/or the iTunes Store, this is entirely not the case. Plenty of other software and DAPs (Digital Audio Players) support the AAC format, even including, as John Gruber points out, Microsoft's own iPod competitor, the Zune. If these non-Apple products don't support AAC, they easily could with a software plugin or firmware upgrade.

    More important, however, is the fact that the iTunes Store is still the world's most popular legitimate digital download store, and that popularity could skyrocket even farther once they unleash these much, much higher quality downloads (higher than any digital store I know of) in a legitimate, affordable and DRM-free download. The newfound interoperability that Apple is boasting for its present and soon-to-be customers could meet a roadblock, however, if the company doesn't build compatibility for non-iPod devices into the iTunes software itself. While customers can buy DRM-free AAC files through the iTS, iTunes is still the gateway for easily moving those files from one's computer to a DAP, and the claims of interoperability and unparalleled experience could crumble quickly as consumers plug in their Creative Zens, Microsoft Zunes and [insert non-iPod here], only to find out that iTunes scoffs at their non-Apple-branded device.

    Will Apple support other DAPs in iTunes? Could we see a 'sync with TiVo' option in the preferences of a forthcoming iTunes 7.5? Time will only tell, but Apple and EMI just opened the doors on the issues of DRM and interoperability - we'll just have to see whether consumers who own something other than an iPod are actually invited to the party.
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  • Apple under European antitrust scrutiny

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    The AP reports that the European Commission has launched an antitrust probe into iTunes. According to the article a single track costs $1.56 in the UK, $1.44 in Denmark and $1.32 in Germany and Belgium, while at the same time users are restricted to the iTunes store of their country of origin. "Consumers are thus restricted in their choice of where to buy music and consequently what music is available, and at what price," the commission said in its statement. Apple's spokesman said it was prevented from creating a single European store by its contracts with music labels and publishers and the rights they negotiated with them.

    This investigation is apparently separate from the whole ongoing Apple/DRM foofaraw.

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  • TUAW Guide: Wireless Broadband on your Mac

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    Ah, the open road. What's more American than being mobile, drifting along the highways and byways, traveling hither and yon, free as a debt-laden bird? While I try to rein in that derailed train of road metaphor, let's consider the options for Mac users and wireless data. Many of you would love to take your Internet access with you as you travel on family vacation or spring break; for others, terrestrial broadband (cable modem or DSL) is unavailable or prohibitively expensive at your fixed location. Good news for all: the choices on the wireless access front are better than ever before. We'll cover the US domestic options today, and hopefully get to Europe/UK and other international options sometime soon.

    More on Mac wireless broadband after the break.

    Continue reading TUAW Guide: Wireless Broadband on your Mac

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  • Mailsmith 2.2 beta universal

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    Mailsmith is an old-school, text-only email client from Bare Bones (of BBEdit and Yojimbo fame), that has long had a cadre of devoted users, but which has also really been showing its age of late (version 2.1.5 was released in March 2005). Yesterday, however, Bare Bones' Rich Siegel announced a public beta of Mailsmith 2.2 that brings the application into the Intel age as well as adding a variety of other changes, including substantial changes to disk storage formats which preclude downgrading back to 2.1. Siegel emphasizes that 2.2 is not yet for sale and is completely unsupported, but if you're an old Mailsmith user who moved away in the Intel age you may want to check out the announcement.

    [Via Daring Fireball]

    Update: fixed links to the announcement. Here's a FTP link to the demo of Mailsmith 2.2 (via Hawk Wings)
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