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- TUAW Review: Podcaster
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Software, Internet Tools, Reviews, Podcasts, iPhone, App Store
You've heard about the controversy surrounding Podcaster -- it's the iPhone app that was turned down by Apple for "duplicating the functionality of iTunes." The developer, Alex Sokirynsky, is now distributing his native podcast stream receiver app via ad hoc distribution.
The iPhone development world & the Mac blogosphere (not to mention the mainstream press) is still loudly debating Apple's decision, but not much is being said about the application itself. Alex was kind enough to provide a review copy of Podcaster to TUAW, so we gave the app a workout. Read on for our review of this controversial and useful application.
Continue reading TUAW Review: Podcaster
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Переслать - Farewell, Jerry, we barely knew ye
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Humor
It's an open question whether TUAW readers really care about the inside-baseball, schadenfreude-laden story of an expensive ad campaign for another technology company that left many in the audience scratching their heads, wondering "are these ads about nothing?" Most of you probably took passing note of the commercials and moved on to your game of Spore.
Nevertheless, the word tonight via Valleywag and Engadget, among other sources, that Microsoft will be dumping Jerry Seinfeld from its upcoming TV spots (and bringing in a John Hodgman look-alike to directly target Apple's "I'm a Mac" campaign) is making us think. Why lose the Sein? He brought a slightly cranky, slightly spacey vibe -- not a bad matchup for Bill Gates, when you come down to it. There must have been more to it than simply "people didn't like the ads..."
Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - First Look: GL Golf
Filed under: iPhone, App Store, iPod touch
If you're the golfing type (and I must admit, I'm no golfer), then you may like a new game/simulator for your iPhone/iPod touch. GL Golf [iTunes Link] allows you to play golf on your iPhone in a semi-realistic 3D world.
The game consists of 5 golf courses, and you can play with up to 4 people. I really like the ability to change variables in the game. You can change things like weather, time of day, season, ball color, difficulty of play, and the type of course.
The game play is solid. To swing the club just double tap on the screen; when the power meter reaches to a spot you want, just single tap and the club will swing, hitting the ball. You can change the type of club you have by dragging your finger up/down the screen, thereby changing the range. The game does pause itself when you tap the home button, so if you get a call while playing, you won't lose your game.
The game is almost perfect with the exception of two things that could be easily changed with an update. First off, the graphics are not the best that you're going to find on an iPhone game. Second, not being able to move the camera (view point) around is a big downfall in certain circumstances. Sometimes a tree or river bank might be blocking your view and you cannot see if you're hitting the ball in the right direction (see screenshot 6). Despite that, the physics model in the game is amazing and very accurate.
Overall, this is a solid game and should definitely be on every duffer's app download list. You can purchase GL Golf from the App Store today for $7.99. Be sure to look at our gallery of screenshots.
Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - A look at WritingPad
Filed under: iPhone, App Store
As of now WritingPad is unavailable from the App Store, but before it disappeared I had a chance to install it and test it out. Bottom line? The "guessing" it does worked surprisingly well, but a few glitches (like trying to add a question mark, which you'll see near the end of the video) marred the intelligence of the autocorrection.
The results of pitting the standard input versus WritingPad, however, weren't great. I found that if I trust Apple's built-in keyboard and autocorrect, my typing is faster. Plus, by smearing your finger around the screen the hand you're holding the iPhone with can get fatigued. I tend to either one-finger type or use both thumbs delicately perched above the keyboard. Also, you have to think a bit more when typing with WritingPad, which sometimes messed me up as I "spelled" the words with my finger. You may type by pressing one letter at a time, however. Guesses appear three at a time below the text entry area. Moving the cursor around is harder because it doesn't magnify the screen as Apple does (so you guess a bit). When you do finish typing you can email the text to yourself or save it inside the app.
WritingPad is a very nice tech demo, but I don't see it usurping Apple's virtual keyboard entry method any time soon. Perhaps a larger screen using similar technology makes sense?Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - New iPhone products from Griffin Technology
Filed under: Accessories, Audio, iPhone
Those inventive dudes at Griffin Technology have come up with two new products for iPhones.
The AirCurve for iPhone and iPhone 3G is a really cool idea -- an amplifier that uses no power adapters or batteries. Instead, it amplifies the sound from the iPhone's speaker using a coiled waveguide (think of an old-fashioned cheerleader megaphone wrapped around into a helix, and you've got the concept). The AirCurve is made of translucent polycarbonate so you can see the curving waveguide. There's a pass-through slot so you can charge and sync your iPhone. The AirCurve is much less expensive than powered alternatives, selling for $19.99. 
The other new product, Clarifi for iPhone 3G is an attractive iPhone 3G case with a difference. It has a built-in lens that slides into place for taking close-ups. While the normal iPhone 3G can focus up to about 18 inches away from the subject, the Clarifi's lens can bring you in as close as 4 to 6 inches. The suggested price is $34.99. By the way, it's not as cheesy as the telephoto lens for iPhone we covered last month.
Both products will be available in October from the Griffin Technology website and retailers.Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - Realmac teases LittleSnapper
Filed under: Software, Internet Tools
Our friends over at at Realmac Software, makers of the popular RapidWeaver website creation app, have just posted some information on their next Mac app, LittleSnapper. From what I can glean from the promo page, LittleSnapper -- which is expected sometime at the end of 2008 -- is designed to be the ultimate mash-up of screenshot applications like Skitch and Paparazzi.
Back in May, I tested and reviewed various (static) screen capturing programs and options for OS X. Although I did not have a chance to actually address the issue of full web page captures in that article, I was, and continue to be frustrated by the lack of a good, Leopard-friendly program that can capture an entire web site, and not just the portion that appears on the screen. Stitching together screenshots in Photoshop is time consuming and unfortunately, Paparazzi's Leopard support is kludgy (.43 works with Leopard, but .5 won't even open). I demoed Web Snapper, but it is a Safari plugin (or InputManager for the semantically correct), which is not always ideal.
From the Realmac website, it looks like LittleSnapper is really designed to take the best aspects of a program like Skitch, the ability to capture portions of the screen and annotate and share with other people, with the ability to work with web browsers and also organize screenshot libraries. They even show off a DOM-highlighter, so you can instantly capture a specific element of a site, much like Safari's WebClip and CSSEdit's Inspector.
We'll let you know more about LittleSnapper as the details eke out. You can sign-up for updates at Realmac's website. LittleSnapper will be a Leopard-only application.Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - New iPod nanos apparently shipping in extra-small
Filed under: iPod nano
It's a mystery: as Engadget reports, there are new iPod nanos showing up at some Dutch retailers... in a 4 gigabyte capacity. Huh? This wasn't part of the announcement last week, and it's not clear why you'd want to pick up a nano in a smaller capacity than the original iPod for actual use, as opposed to for its investment value.
UK gadget site Pocket-lint has word from Apple that 4GB, 4th Gen nanos were produced "in a limited number" for some international markets, but they were never on the overall product roadmap. Were they intended to hit Dutch retail, or only for online sales? Could be a shipping mixup, could be clearing out inventory, could be on purpose -- but perhaps a collector's item for US customers.
Now we have word from Dutch blog One More Thing that indeed the 4GB units are being sold, in all nine colors, for €119. Amazon's German site is also selling the units.
Engadget has a lovely gallery of the low-cap iPods up for your viewing pleasure.Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - Yet Another Fake Tablet
Filed under: Hardware, Rumors, Graphic Design
It's sad how much I want this whole tablet rumor to be true. So it's always a delightful surprise to find the latest Photoshopped fake in our inbox. Above is "Max Vinegar"'s contribution to the cause. I love the way it's artistically blurred, with just the right ceiling reflections and how the new-fashioned nano gives it a frisson of verisimilitude.
Got a better fauxtotablet? Drop a link into the comments and I'll put up a gallery of 'em.
Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - Rumor: German retailer might have new MacBook Pro
Filed under: Hardware, Rumors, Macbook Pro
German retailer T-Systems (a division of Deutsche Telekom/T-Mobile, already the iPhone's German carrier) has images of what it claims is a MacBook Pro for sale, but this model includes a glossy screen with a black border, much like current iMac displays.The notebooks feature 2.5GHz and 2.6GHz (update: the latter of which has been removed from the site, but we have a cached copy) Intel Core 2 Duo processors, 2GB of RAM, a 250GB hard disk, and an nVidia GF 8600M GT video card. My German is very rusty, but it appears the 2.5GHz laptops are offered with both glossy and matte displays.
If true, it could mean more definite announcements from Apple soon about new laptops on the way.
Thanks, Felix!
Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - iPhone 101: Pause an app download
Filed under: iPhone 101
With the advent of firmware 2.1, Apple has added the ability to pause a App Store download currently in progress. When you purchase an app, a temporary download icon will appear on your home screen. While the application is still in the download process, tapping it will pause the download.
Paused downloads will be denoted by the word "Paused" underneath the icon. To resume the download, just tap again. While Apple has added this feature to the iPhone OS, your mileage may vary as far as it working properly. In one instance, our iPhone had to be restarted completely before the download would resume properly.
Want more iPhone tips and tricks like this? Visit TUAW's iPhone 101 section.Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - Hands On: Big Bang Board Games for iPhone
Filed under: Gaming, iPod Family, iPhone
I love Freeverse's Big BrainBang Board games for Mac so I was super excited to hear that they'd ported them over to the iPhone [iTunes link]. And sure enough, many of the great features that make the software such a winner on the Mac are there on the phone: the snarky avatars (yes, you can tap them), the adjustable gameplay levels, the great graphics, and so forth.But like many other developers out there, Freeverse has overlooked one big design principle. That principle is: Fingers big; iPhone small. Failing this reduces the game from "must have" to "your mileage will vary".
The iPhone is not a desktop machine. Software needs to be re-imagined not just re-platformed. Developers need to re-design around the hardware and human factors that limit the platform. And it's there that Freeverse made some mis-steps, particularly in sizing.
A couple of the Big
BrainBang games are practically unplayable. Backgammon is the worst offender, both in landscape or portrait play. Although Freeverse has done an amazing job minimizing interaction issues on a tiny screen (the legal plays are highlighted in blue and can be tapped), some game spots are nearly untouchable, leading to a dozen taps or more to advance one move in game play. Late in the four-in-a-row game, it's almost impossible to drop your pieces at the two ends of the board due to the height of the stacks.The problems comes from two sources: first, Freeverse retained its gorgeous 3D graphics in the port. That means that board areas suffer from perspective -- they lose pixels to style. Second, the platform itself only has so many pixels to offer. It's a tiny screen and we interact with fingers not styluses. Freeverse needs to redesign some of those games to make sure that the thumbfingered as well as the nimble can play.
So that having been said, what works? Obviously, the flexible game play the big winner. Big
BrainBang offers Backgammon, Tic Tac Toe, Chess, Checkers, Reversi, Mancala, and 4 In A Row. Chess, Checkers, and Reversi remain the most playable and enjoyable. The audio design matches the desktop experience, which will appeal or not according to taste. Finally, Freeverse loaded up the package with options that allow you to adjust playback difficulty. So there's a lot of win in the package, even if you might be disappointed with some of the specific play features.Big
Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsBrainBang Board Games[iTunes link] costs $7.99 and can be played on both iPhone and iPod touch, although the latter requires headphones or an external speaker to experience the sound effects.Переслать - Terminal Tip: Disabling Leopard's Dock spring windows
Filed under: Terminal Tips
I seriously hate the way that Leopard's spring-loaded download pane works. So this morning, I asked our team if there were a way to get around it. "Of course," said Brett, and he pointed me to this Mac OS X Hints page, warning me that it was a kludge.
Kludge it may be, but it was a kludge that worked just fine. I didn't quite follow the directions in that post, though, and I thought I'd share my approach because it worked a lot more easily for me.
First, I opened Terminal and changed directories to ~/Library/Preferences. I made a backup copy of com.apple.dock.plist (probably completely unnecessary, in retrospect) and converted the original version to XML from binary:
plutil -convert xml1 com.apple.dock.plist.Next, I opened the preferences property list in TextEdit and did a global search/replace on
directory-tile, changing all instances todirectory. I saved and then did akillall Dock.When my dock returned, it returned with the normal, happy, uncomplicated folders you see here. When clicked, they open normal, happy, uncomplicated file browsers. Yay. Thanks, Brett, and thanks Mac OS X Hints.
Also thanks to TUAW readers Brandon, who points out that you can Command-click the folder and Rich who suggests adding folder aliases rather than the folder itself.
Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - Digital Camera RAW Compatibility Update 2.2
Filed under: Software Update
Today Apple released an update for Mac OS X's RAW compatibility. iPhoto '08 and Aperture will now be able to work with RAW formats from the following cameras:
- Canon EOS Digital Rebel XS/Kiss Digital F/1000D
- Kodak DCS Pro SLR/n
- Nikon D700
- Olympus EVOLT E-420
- Olympus EVOLT E-520
- Olympus SP-570
- Samsung GX-10
- Samsung GX-20
- Sony DSLR-A300
- Sony DSC-R1
Thanks to everyone who sent this in!Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - EVE skill training tracker for the iPhone
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Cool tools, Odds and ends, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch
Previously, I mentioned Characters here on TUAW as one of my favorite iPhone apps, and here's another good iPhone app that will assist you with playing a great MMO. EVE Tracker is available in the App Store right now for free, and will let you track your EVE Online skill training (which can happen even while you're away from the game) from anywhere an iPhone can get online.
Just punch in your API account key, and just like EVEMon (a great EVE character tracker which isn't yet available for Mac -- hint hint EVEMon devs), you'll be able to see what your character is learning, where you're at in the skill trees, and so on. Also like EVEMon, you can't actually play the game from the app, but if you're away from the client and need to know just when that cruiser training will be done, it'll do ya.
It's too bad we haven't seen more official clients for the iPhone -- Blizzard and CCP both have been rumored to be working on mobile clients for at least parts of their games, but the App Store has only seen unofficial software for now. Someday, we hope MMO players will be able to play the AH or check their in-game mail from the iPhone, but for now, stuff like EVE Tracker is what we've got.
[via Massively]Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - Five new Apple retail stores open Saturday
Filed under: Retail
Apple is opening its fifth retail location in San Diego county at Westfield North County Fair in Escondido this Saturday at 10 a.m. The Apple Store is centrally located in the mall on the middle level across from Nordstrom.
Opening the same day at 9 a.m. is an Apple Store for Lancaster, PA at the Park City Center. There, the Apple Store is located next to The Bonton and The Gap. Colorado Springs, CO is also getting an Apple Store at The Promenade Shops at Briargate. It opens at 10 a.m., and is located next to Pier 1 Imports on the west side of the mall. (Bonus typo on the map page.) The bay area gets another location in San Mateo, at the Hillsdale Shopping Center. It also opens at 10, and is located next to Guess and the Lego Store.
And to top it all off, the first Apple Store in Northern Ireland -- at Victoria Square in Belfast -- will be throwing open its doors at 9 a.m. The Apple Store is located on the Upper Ground Floor.
All times are local. All five grand openings will feature t-shirts for the first thousand customers, and probably lots of high-fives and yelling.
Thanks, Toby, Ross, and Jonathan!
Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - CrossOver creates Chromium just to show they can do it
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Software, Freeware, UNIX / BSD, Developer
Mike Rose and I were chatting about this on the Talkcast a few weeks back -- virtualization and emulation programmers get all John Locke from Lost when you try to tell them what's not possible. And so when the guys at CrossOver heard that Google wasn't releasing Chrome for the Mac, they decided to put together a release themselves. CrossOver Chromium is a proof-of-concept release of the Chromium browser (which Chrome is built off of) that allows Google's base code to run on Mac and Linux platforms.
It's designed to show off just how well Wine works to bring Windows-based code to other platforms, and wake Google up to the fact that if they wanted to port Chrome over, they could. CrossOver says they did this to prove a point (and the point seems proven), but it's likely not only that Google wants to run the code natively, but that they wanted to focus on their largest audience first, which anyone can tell you is likely still the Windows crowd.
Even CrossOver says their version isn't ready for prime-time yet, they just wanted to show how fast it could be done. Let this be a lesson, Google: don't tell virtual software developers what they can't do.Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - Apple updates Remote app for iPhone, adds Genius functionality
Filed under: iPhone, App Store, iPod touch
Apple just dropped an update for the Remote application for iPhone/iPod touch. Remote.app allows you to control any iTunes library (or Apple TV) over a local WiFi connection. According to the release notes, you will now be able to create a Genius playlist, and create/edit playlists in iTunes.
This application (and its update) is a free download from the iTunes App Store. Take a look at our gallery of screenshots below. And be sure to sound off in the comments if you notice anything different in this version!
Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - Today's a big day for Steve
Filed under: Steve Jobs, Apple History
Fun fact: September 16 is the day in 1985 that Steve Jobs left Apple, and also the same day in 1997 that he returned to Apple as then-iCEO. Jobs first left after CEO John Sculley ousted him from Apple's board of directors after both had tried to be "co-CEOs."
Jobs also filed papers that same day in 1985 founding NeXT, the company that he intended to use as a weapon against Apple. Instead, Apple wound up acquiring NeXT for $400 million in 1996. Parts of the NeXT operating system, NeXTStep, eventually became the underpinnings of Mac OS X.
[Via Wired.]
Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - Apple releases Remote Desktop 3.2.2
Filed under: Enterprise, Software Update
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Apple just released two updates for its Remote Desktop product. The client update and the admin update promise the following fixes:
- Improved reliability with the Copy Items command.
- Upgrade Client Software command now uses unicast packets for improved reliability on some networks.
- Fixes to the Force Quit All Applications and Copy Items to Computer Automator actions.
Thanks to everyone who sent this in!Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - 7digital launches MP3 store with all 4 major labels
Filed under: iTS
7digital launched an all-MP3 digital music store featuring songs from all four major labels: Sony BMG, Universal, Warner, and EMI. The tracks are DRM-free and encoded at 320kbps.Currently, the store is available to users in the UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria, France, Spain, Italy and Portugal. 7digital plans to launch stores in the U.S. and Canada in Q4.
The company reached a deal with Sony BMG -- the lone holdout -- bringing the store's catalog to about four million songs. Some music was previously available in Windows Media format, and MP3 "upgrades" for those tracks will be available for free.
Only EMI has offered its catalog for iTunes Plus, Apple's DRM-free offering, along with several smaller indie labels. The labels have had a long-term strategy of pressuring Apple by withholding DRM-free tracks while encouraging other music stores like Amazon MP3 and eMusic.
Tracks available in the 7digital store range from 79p to 99p (≈ $1.41 to $1.77), and albums are £5 (≈ $9) on up. MP3 files play on almost every digital music player made in the last 10 years, including every iPod.
[Via DistortedLoop.]
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