Tuesday, August 12, 2008

The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) (14 сообщений)

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  • AlleyInsider: QuickTime on a chip?

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    Silicon Alley Insider is offering "pure speculation" based on a tip that Apple's Fall future product transition is a video upgrade to Apple products that includes a QuickTime encoder/decoder on a chip.

    As cool as this would be, I don't personally think it's a significant-enough development to warn investors about. Unless, of course, it's part and parcel of more substantial changes to Apple's product lines.

    Having video playback functions handled by a separate microprocessor capable of dealing with the variety of media formats that QuickTime handles could yield performance increases for lower-end Macs (with less-powerful video cards) and battery life savings for handheld devices.

    Also, depending on what codecs are included on-board, it could mean an end to countless hours converting video specifically for your iPhone, iPod touch, or Apple TV. Additionally, MacRumors' Arnold Kim notes that it could be of some use for encoding Blu-Ray video.

    All I want is DivX AVI playback on my iPod touch. Pretty please?

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  • Bring the Noise.io!
    Noise.io screenshot
    Noise.io is an interesting-looking synthesizer app for iPhone, due to appear in the App Store in the coming weeks.

    What's interesting about it is the emphasis on live performance. This is an app designed for use on stage, and comes complete with the advice: "Simply connect the sound output of your iPhone/iPod touch to the mic/line
    input of your mixer, recorder or sound card - and there you are, now you can enrich your tracks or mixes with superb sound effects."

    Right now, we shall just have to take the developers' word for that, because the app isn't officially released and all we have to go on are the screenshots and a single preview video that hints at what's to come. For seven bucks, it looks like it might be hard to resist.
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  • Google Translate ported to iPhone

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    You know if the App Store has been out for a month and we're posting about a web app, it has to be a good one. Google announced late last week that they've brought the terrific Google Translate service over to the iPhone. Of course, whenever you travel internationally, roaming charges (sometimes huge ones) can come into play, but if you find yourself tooling around Spain and need more phrases than ¿Dónde está el baño? or Tú eres mi chica, Google's web app will do the trick fast and easy.

    And there's some nice coding in there, too -- the phrases translated get stored on the client side of the phone, so if you've already translated something, you don't have to reload the page to see it again. To use the service, just point your MobileSafari to translate.google.com. Folks in other countries probably still won't care too much what you have to say, but at least they'll know what you're saying.
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  • Do you plan to cancel your 3G service tomorrow?

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    Ah how time passes quickly. Just one short month ago, the iPhone 3G went on sale. Many of you camped out on line just so you could buy one of those sweet units. And tomorrow, if memory serves, will be the first day that you can cancel service, pay your early termination fee, prorate your monthly bill, and still keep your iPhone.

    Why would you want to do that? Canceling after a full month of service allows you to keep a free and clear iPhone. Cancel before that time, and AT&T theoretically wants your iPhone back. Think about what a contract-free 3G gives you. It can be pwned and used with pretty much any AT&T SIM, including those ultra-cheap Pay As You Go cards that offer $20-for-thirty-day 3G data plans.

    Are any of you going to do this? Are you ready to detach your unit from those expensive iPhone-only plans? Or are you pretty happy with the service, price and features that you already have? Let us know in the comments what you've decided, especially if you've been waiting for tomorrow's 3G iDay to cancel.

    Source of the 30 day confusion: "To cancel service within the first 30 days, the customer must return their equipment to the place of purchase (no exceptions). If the customer cancels service after 30 days, they will be charged the ETF. The customer is not required to return the device to cancel after 30 days."

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  • Net Nanny for the Mac released

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    Are you concerned about the youngsters in your household being exposed to inappropriate content on the Web?

    ContentWatch today announced the release of Net Nanny for the Mac, the first Mac version of their popular Internet filtering and parental control software.

    With Net Nanny, you can block access to gambling and pornography sites, and specify what games or sites (enabled with parental ratings) your kids can visit. NetNanny does this by integrating with Safe Search options on most major search engines, including Google, MSN, AllTheWeb, Yahoo, Dogpile, Lycos, and AltaVista.

    NetNanny provides usage reports so parents can see what each user has been viewing on the Internet, browser alerts when access to an inappropriate or blocked page is attempted, time restrictions for users, and a Content Assistant feature to define the right level of protection for each user.

    Although ContentWatch's Web site hasn't yet been updated with news about the Mac release, their press release announcing the new software states that the Mac product info will be listed at http://netnanny.com/mac/.

    NetNanny is available for US$39.99 for the first license, with each additional computer in the house costing just $19.99. The application is available in English, German, French, Japanese, Spanish, and Italian.
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  • Reminder: Free iPod education promo ends Sept. 15

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    College

    Just a reminder: We told you in June about Apple's education promotion where you can get a free 8GB iPod touch (worth $299) to college students who buy a MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iMac, or Mac Pro. The promotion ends in just over a month, on September 15.

    If you haven't placed your order yet, it's probably a good time to get your act in gear.

    Note also that from the reports we've seen, iPod touch is not shipping with the 2.0 software update pre-loaded yet. So you'll have to shell out ten bucks for the software update.

    Qualified students can also opt for an 8GB iPod nano.

    On Sunday's talkcast, we figured it was all-but-certain that new iPod touch models and possibly laptops will drop right after this promotion ends. Keep that in mind, too.

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  • Turn your change into apps

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    Ryan P sent us a nice tip about using Coinstar units to turn your spare change into iTunes apps. You've seen Coinstar at the grocery store before -- you throw your spare change in there, and then it spits out a receipt you can take to the service counter for cash (minus a little off the top for the counting). But Ryan told us Coinstar now offers gift certificates instead of cash, if you want, minus the coin counting charge.

    And one of those certificates can be used at the iTunes store, which means you can throw your coins in, and instead of paying Coinstar to count them, get the full value of your change in an iTunes card. And since apps on the App Store are so cheap, you can use your former quarters and dimes to pick up some terrific apps (may we recommend Sketches, or maybe Pennies -- since you're so coin-conscious anyway). And considering that the amount Coinstar takes out is almost 9%, putting the money in an iTunes card (if you're going to buy the apps anyway) can be a nice chunk of change.
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  • ResizeMe: Scale, rotate and flip batches of images

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    Dare to be Creative announced version 1.2 of ResizeMe, a tool that allows you to stretch, scale, rotate and flip many images at once. The update allows users to store and organize their most frequently used image edits as bookmarks.

    ResizeMe works with JPEG, PNG, TIFF, PDF, JP2, SGI and TGA formats, and preserves EXIF data after manipulating images.

    ResizeMe is $19.95, universal binary, and works with Mac OS X 10.4 or higher. The update is free for registered users. Also -- a bundle is available that includes Renamer4Mac and Dragoman for $49 at MacSnack.

    [Via PRMac.]

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  • Three million iPhone 3Gs sold in first month

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    A month ago, Apple was crowing about selling one million iPhone 3G handsets over its opening weekend. In a month, they've tripled that figure.

    According to Fortune and analyst Michael Cote of the (eponymous and nascent, from what I can Google) Cote Collaborative, Apple has already hit the three million mark, with many investors expecting only three to four million handsets sold by the end of the quarter.

    Cote is a former T-Mobile executive, who Scott Moritz says has been accurate with his predictions in the past.

    It took over 10 weeks for the original iPhone to sell just one million handsets. The iPhone 3G accounts for almost a third of all iPhones sold, ever.

    Cote says that meeting demand will be Apple's challenge going forward, as it enters 20 new countries on August 22 -- almost doubling its market presence worldwide. "The demand is so strong it may impact or delay the new countries coming on," he said.

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  • iPhone kicking butt on flickr

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    Despite the complaints about the measly 2-megapixel camera built into the iPhone, it appears that ease-of-use trumps resolution. The iPhone remains the leader in camera phone usage on Flickr.

    Flickr monthly statistics indicate that not only has the iPhone retained its lead (which it gained after knocking the Nokia N95 from the top spot) over other phones, but the lead has begun to widen. Why? It might be due to faster photo uploading from the iPhone 3G, the capability to geotag your iPhone photos, or just the fact that the iPhone photo app is easy to launch and use.

    If you're not a flickr user, where do you keep your iPhone pictures? Leave a comment below!
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  • Ask TUAW: Mail.app problems, copying Time Machine backups, replacing an iPhone, GUI mockups and more

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    For this edition of Ask TUAW we'll have a look at problems with Mail.app, mocking-up GUIs, replacing a broken iPhone, visualizing disk space, copying Time Machine backups and much more.

    As always, your suggestions are most welcome, and questions for next week should be left in the comments. When asking a question please include which machine you're running and which version of Mac OS X, as certain answers will vary between different Macs and Tiger vs. Leopard, etc. (we'll assume you're running Leopard if you don't specify). And now, on to the questions!

    Continue reading Ask TUAW: Mail.app problems, copying Time Machine backups, replacing an iPhone, GUI mockups and more

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  • TUAW Review: Richard | Solo Smart Backup Battery for iPhone / iPod

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    Richard | Solo Smart Backup Battery for iPhone / iPod
    If there's anything I've learned about the iPhone 3G since July 11th, it's that the battery life is horrible. If I'm just texting and making the occasional call, I can survive for a day, but if I try to play games or use 3G I know it's going to go to the dreaded red battery icon quickly.

    That's why there are a growing number of manufacturers who have extended battery packs for the iPhone on the market. For example, I looked at the Kensington Mini Battery Pack and Charger (US$49.99), but the website doesn't show that it works with the iPhone 3G.

    My next choice was the Richard | Solo Smart Backup Battery. This US$49.95 lithium-ion battery pack has saved me from running out of juice prematurely more than once!

    Read on for more information about this must-have sidekick for the iPhone 3G.

    Continue reading TUAW Review: Richard | Solo Smart Backup Battery for iPhone / iPod

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  • Steve Jobs discusses App Store with Wall Street Journal

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    This morning's Wall Street Journal has a really interesting article (use Google News to view the complete text) about the App Store, complete with quotes from Steve Jobs himself! While the full article is definitely worth a read, here are some of the highlights:

    • After the first month, App Store sales are about $30 million US, meaning at least $360 million in revenue for Apple if sales continue at that pace (we discussed the success of the App Store on a micro-level, here)
    • Steve on the App Store: "I've never seen anything like this in my career for software."
    • Steve on the future of mobile technology: "Phone differentiation used to be about radios and antennas and things like that. We think, going forward, the phone of the future will be differentiated by software."
    • Steve on the ability to disable a program remotely: "Hopefully we never have to pull that lever, but we would be irresponsible not to have a lever like that to pull."

    As Steve Sande pointed out in last night's Talkcast, amid all the criticism aimed at the App Store, we often forget that the store is only one month old. That isn't to say that those criticisms are invalid or unnecessary, it just brings some perspective to the "bigger picture," if you will. Now that we are a month in, it is clear that the store, the distribution format, and the platform are real game changers for the mobile industry and for Apple itself.

    Thanks John!
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  • Talkcast Reminder: 10 p.m. ET tonight

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    Be so kind, one and all, as to join us tonight at 10 p.m. Eastern time (7 p.m. Pacific), when I have the privelege of joining Christina Warren, Michael Rose, Steven Sande, and hundreds more of our closest friends for our happy-yet-disorderly discussion about the week's most interesting events in the Mac universe.

    If all goes to plan, we'll be talking about the new iPhone 2.0.1 firmware, the rise and fall of I Am Rich, the App Store's apparent schizophrenia when it comes to adding new apps, Microsoft Silverlight, and the surprisingly pretty awesome start to the Olympics. And to top it all off, Woz got married! How 'bout that?

    If you haven't listened to last week's (excellent, if I do say so myself) first-anniversary talkcast, feel absolutely free to download it straight from Talkshoe, or subscribe to the TalkShoe feed in iTunes.

    For instructions on how to listen, follow me across the jump.

    Continue reading Talkcast Reminder: 10 p.m. ET tonight

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