Fresh Apple: The Apple Blog (4 сообщения)

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The Apple Blog
The Apple Blog, published by and for the day-to-day Apple user, is a prominent source for news, reviews, walkthroughs, and real life application of all Apple products.
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OS X : Unplugged(.prefpane)
I came across a comment about a small but useful utility I had not heard of before called Unplugged. This utility (in the form of a System Preferences panel) from Briksoftware watches for events related to your power cord being plugged or unplugged and notifies you via Growl (if Growl is not installed, the application will use an alert window).

You can choose whether it starts on login, whether you are given an extra notification when battery resources are at a level you define and can restrict display if designated applications are currently running:

You also have complete control over the information presented in the alerts:

With my Growl configuration, the notifications look like this:

It’s a very simple application that does not require a substantial amount of system resources (as shown below). There have been times when I have had the MacBook Pro become unplugged and not noticed the screen dim only to discover much later that I’m on 50% battery left. This utility would have definitely come in handy then and is now a part of my “must have” applications.

I had a bit of trouble trying to send a PayPal donation to the author via the link on the page, but managed to do so via the standard PayPal “Send Money” option. As always, I highly encourage folks to support independent development on the Mac.

If you use Unplugged or have suggestions for other small-but-useful utilities, drop a note in the comments.

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What's Your Take on Firefox 3?

After over 8 million downloads last Tuesday, it’s safe to say that the Mozilla Foundation has given birth to a happy baby boy browser with Firefox 3. Was it worth the wait? I’d have to say that after playing with it for over week, I’m sitting firmly on the fence. Here’s my take.
The Good

Speed. That’s the number one advantage to Firefox 3 for me. The browser seems much faster overall, as in my (very) informal tests, Firefox 3 loads pages significantly faster than Firefox 2. 3rd party add-ons like the Web Developer toolbar, are more responsive as well. Viewing a page’s CSS with the toolbar’s ”View CSS” feature used to take up to ten seconds in Firefox 2. In Firefox 3, it’s close to instant. Of course Firefox 3 broke several of my add-ons, but I expected that.

I also like the new interface overall, though I have my complaints listed below. It looks a bit more utilitarian, and at first glance it feels like it gels with Leopard, like it belongs. The chrome of the browser seems pretty tight and softer visually, bringing less competition to the page you’re browsing (even though many of us tune out the shell of the browser these days). And I love the large back button.

The Not So Good

I’m really turned off by the curved tabs to the left of the address bar and search - especially given the fact that many favicons have white backgrounds. A favicon with a white background ruins the effect for me (I have with IE7 as well, for the record).

And while I like the the interface, I feel that it’s wayyyy too close to Safari, who of course does the sexy dark gray the best. Firefox 2 had a playful charm that set it apart from Safari and Internet Explorer. It just looks like Firefox 3 made an attempt to grow up. And as some have noted, the Firefox team attempted to copy some OSX form controls and in some instances they didn’t do the greatest job. It undermines the experience for me just enough to notice.

Overall, I’m fairly luke warm on Firefox 3. I love the browser as a whole, but the upgrade hasn’t exactly blown my socks off. But what do you think loyal TAB readers? Has the upgrade been worth it for you? Sound off in the comments.

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Electronic Arts will release Spore Galactic Edition
Electronic Arts is releasing a special version of the much anticipated game called Spore Galactic Edition. Currently it’s still in
development.

I’m looking forward to Spore. Although I don’t always purchase the Special edition copies, I will be purchasing this edition. Spore Galactic Edition has a lot of extras that you cannot find in the regular game.
- Making of Spore DVD
- How to Build a Better Being DVD from the National Geographic Channel
- The Art of Spore hardback mini-book
- Fold-out Spore poster
- 100-page Galactic Handbook
I’m looking forward to all the extras that will be included I’m really looking forward to the Making of Spore DVD along with How to Build a Better Being. The latter would be handy right now. Last week, EA has created additional excitement for this upcoming game by releasing The Spore Creature Creator. It is available for Mac and Windows users. There is a free version or you can purchase the full copy that unlocks all creatures for $9.95.

I downloaded my copy last week. You’ll find the same tools in the Creature Creator that will be available when the game is released. Spore Creature Creator has its on channel on you tube. Although I knew it was going to be popular I had no idea it would take off as it has. The Spore Creature Creator was released last week and over one million creature designs have been created since it was released. The Spore Creature Creator allows users to create and share their creations on YouTube.

I enjoy open-ended gameplay. The Elder Scroll series definitely falls into this category, and I could spend hours wandering around that massive environment. I’m looking forward to Spore because it’s massive and will give me the in-game freedom I crave. Spore is being developed by Maxis and is being designed by Will Wright. It’s hard to place Spore under one genre since there are so many stages to the game. Will Wright has called it “a multi-genre massively single-player online game.”

In Spore, you have the ability to control the evolution of a species from the beginnings as an unicellular organism through development as an intelligent social creature. There are five phases to the game; Cell, Creature, Tribal, Civilization, and Space. According to some reports the first four phases should take between 10-15 hours to complete. That’s a lot of game time! It’s going to take me a while before I’m able to travel to space. I don’t have a lot of time for gaming.

Spore will also be available for mobile phones. The game will be simplified and will give players the chance to try to survive as a multicellular organism swimming in a tide pool. Unlike the full version of the game the mobile game will be about an hour long. The iPhone version will use the device’s touch capabilities and 3-axis accelerometer.

Spore Galactic Edition will be released simultaneously for Mac and Windows. Europe will receive it on September 5, 2008. It will be available in North America on September 7, 2008. The cost will be $79.99.

Are you planning on purchasing Spore or Spore Galactic Edition? Is so let us know by leaving a note in the comment section.

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Two-Finger Scrolling for Pre-2005 PowerBooks and iBooks
I was reformatting a Powerbook the other day and after a fresh Leopard install I went to use the two finger scroll function to scroll down a page…but it wasn’t there. I have been using intel based laptops for so long that I just take the two finger scroll feature function and the two finger secondary right click function for granted, and sorely miss them when they’re not available. Luckily, with the help of some third party software the two finger scroll feature and the two finger secondary right click function are easily added to older G4 laptops.

“iScroll2 is a modified trackpad driver that adds two-finger scrolling capabilities to supported pre-2005 PowerBooks and iBooks on OS X 10.3 and up. Supported models include most aluminum PowerBooks introduced from 2003 to 2004 as well as most G4 iBooks.”

Download iScroll 2 here,and install. After the install and a quick restart iScroll 2 will be an option in your system preferences.

I found that the default settings were way too sensitive, and I couldn’t easily scroll with them. I used the settings like the ones pictured below and they worked well, but I would suggest taking a few minutes to tweak them.

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