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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.
http://theappleblog.com
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Laptops, Screen Sizes, and Resolutions, Oh My!

With the entire Mac world seemingly focused on the next-generation MacBook and MacBook Pro models, I'd like to put in my $.02 regarding screen sizes.

For all the hope and pie-in-the-sky dreams of new models incorporating some touch screen or tablet characteristics, the latest rumors would seem to confirm that these will still be more or less conventional laptops, used in conventional ways, with conventional applications. Maybe that sounds boring, but let's not pretend the new models could possibly have been such a paradigm shift that we’d suddenly stop running our usual productivity software on them, OK?

Though I’ve never liked the wide screen form factor, preferring vertical to horizontal space, like most people I modified my work habits to take advantage of the horizontal real estate. This Spring, screen manufacturers began moving more to a 16:9 screen ratio from the current 16:10. Sony, Acer, and Lenovo have already introduced models with such screens, and we may very well see them incorporated in the next generation of Apple laptops as well.
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Live from Diggnation: Apple Event Rumors
Diggnation London 2007, photo by SlipstreamJC

This year’s Future of Web Apps Expo found game geek Alex Albrecht and über-fanboy Kevin Rose arrive in London, England, for a live Diggnation show. The show, intended to be a roundup of the week’s most interesting Digg.com stories, descended in to the usual drunken fun.

Several weeks back, Rose published a video on his blog featuring several rumors relating to the new iPod Nano, most of which came good. This puts Rose in the somewhat unique position of being a fountain of unsubstantiated yet spookily reliable insider knowledge.

Over at the live filming in London, a suitably inebriated Rose dropped a couple of short-yet-sweet golden nuggets in the form of Apple-related rumors.

Rumor Number One: The new notebooks will feature Blu-Ray Drives

Rumor Number Two: Apple have updated the solid-state drives to be much more reliable (we’re assuming this relates specifically to the Macbook Air)

Rose did caveat these rumors in stating that they were from, “a bad source,” whereas his Nano rumors were from a separate, more reliable source. With the Apple Notebook event due in but a few days — Tuesday, October 14 — we’ll know soon enough if Rose’s rumors come good.

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Apple Officially Admits to Faulty NVIDIA GPUs
Following NVIDIA’s July 2008 announcement that a number of their GPUs were experiencing higher failure rates than should be normally expected, Apple today finally released an official support article acknowledging the problem. The article claims that NVIDIA told Apple graphics cards in Macintosh computers were not affected by the problem, which is supposedly related to improper packaging. The reason for the lag time between NVIDIA’s and Apple’s announcements concerning the faulty GPUs is an internal investigation by Cupertino itself which eventually found that MacBook Pro NVIDIA cards were indeed affected.

The GeForce 8600M GT, specifically, is named in the article as having problems, which were used in MBP’s manufactured between May of 2007 and September of 2008. Symptoms include distorted video or no display at all on either the built-in or connected external displays. Anyone affected is directed to take their machine to an Apple Store or authorized service provider to receive a repair free of charge. Those who’ve already paid out of pocket for a fix are also eligible for reimbursement. The offer is valid for two years from the original date of purchase.
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Apple Appears Green, May Be More Greenish-Brown

Consumers may be perceiving Apple as a more ecologically friendly company than they actually are, according to a new report by marketing research firm TDG.

Results of a survey of randomly selected participants found that roughly 30% believed Apple was the most environmentally friendly tech brand, with Dell and HP the next most popular choices, at 21% and 15% respectively. The results are somewhat baffling, since Apple does not do nearly as much as some other companies to paint themselves as a so-called “green” company.

Survey participants were also just plain wrong about Apple. While it has recently improved its standings in Greenpeace’s “Guide to Green Electronics,” it still falls behind Dell and HP based on the environmental organization’s comprehensive ranking system. In the inaugural study in August of 2006, Jobs’ baby scored a paltry 2.7 out of a possible 10. September 2008’s results saw Apple’s score climb to 4.1, which is still behind LG, Toshiba, Dell and HP. Apple was listed as having improved in some categories, but still isn’t quite up to snuff on energy management and recycling.
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Using an Xbox or PS3 With a Cinema Display
As an avid Apple fan, I use a MacBook as my primary machine along with a Cinema Display to provide some extra screen estate. When choosing to buy the display, I never really considered the possibility that I would need to plug any device into it other than my laptop so didn’t opt for one with different ports and connections. This came back to bite me recently when I purchased an Xbox 360 and discovered that, even with an appropriate HDMI to DVI adaptor, it isn’t possible to connect a games console directly to an Apple display.

It is, however, possible to connect a gaming console by way of an EyeTV Hybrid, which has the necessary S-Video or Composite inputs. HD gameplay isn’t possible at this time, but there could well be products in the future which accept HDMI or Component inputs. This guide gives you an overview of this process and should get you up and running with your Xbox (or any other recent games console).
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Apple Without Jobs: At Least One Analyst Gets It
Many analysts and tech pundits spend a lot of time wailing and gnashing their teeth over the supposed demise of Apple, should something happen to Steve Jobs. I find it especially amusing that many of them seem to be the same ones who give Jobs little credit for Apple’s success (it’s all Jon Ive, or marketing, or the Apple faithful, or blah, blah, blah), but still claim Apple would be lost without him. I wish they’d make up their minds.

Finally, there’s a more level-headed analyst out there who realizes that life (and companies) do go on. Ezra Gottheil, of Technology Business Research, Inc., outlines why Apple will be OK when Steve Jobs departs.

“Apple doesn’t need Jobs anymore,” Gottheil said. “He’s established three sound businesses — Mac, iPod and the iPhone – and the company knows how to execute his fanatical devotion to design and usability. There’s a stable management team in place, and they know what they’re doing.”

He’s right. For as much credit as Jobs (deservedly) gets, he has assembled a crack management team that is executing almost flawlessly.
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Free Up Resources With DashQuit

The Dashboard was one of the marquee new features in Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger when it was introduced in the spring of 2005 — a sort of Desktop alternate universe accessed through the Dock as a home and interface for an assortment of mini-applications and utilities called Widgets.

Those who liked it, liked it a lot, it seems. Hundreds of Dashboard Widgets have been developed by third-parties in addition to the variety bundled with OS X by Apple.

Personally, I’ve never really warmed to the Dashboard, and rarely use it — by “rarely” I mean a frequency of probably less than once a month on average, and there is no Dashboard Widget I would really miss having available.

On the other hand, Dashboard is something of a resources hog, and being a user of older, low-end hardware, I begrudge the amounts of RAM, processor cycles, and swapfile access that get absorbed by the Dashboard. For example, the old Pismo PowerBook I’m typing this article on has a 550 MHz G4 processor and just 576 MB of RAM, and my most powerful Mac at this time is a 2004 vintage 1.33 GHz G4 PowerBook with a still-modest by today’s standards 1.5 GB of RAM. It would be great if Apple had provided the option to manually quit the Dashboard in OS X, but for whatever reason, they didn’t.
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Jumsoft is at it again: All-in-One Business Packs Released

Today, Jumsoft released their All-in-One Business Packs for Apple’s Keynote, Pages and iWeb.

Maintain the same style among your documents, Web site, e-mails, and even presentations.

With the great experience of developing various templates, Jumsoft has finally created amazing All-in-One template packs for your personal or small business. For the first time, there are three themed packs to choose from—Craft, Elite, and Rich. Our intuition has whispered us to provide the templates for all the applications you are likely to need in your business—iWeb, Keynote, Pages, and even Apple Mail. Be noticed among the rival firms and demonstrate your modern attitude towards your business image.

What is great about these packs is that small businesses can now easily brand themselves with high-quality templates and visuals. Many individuals and small businesses can’t afford outside design services let alone have the design skills to make their own templates. Thus, these All-in-One packs make their lives simpler.

As an owner of other Jumsoft products — I have the Keynote Quartet FX as well as their iWeb and RapidWeaver Themes pack — I know Jumsoft makes quality products. It’s also nice to see software companies provide value-adds to Apple’s iLife and iWork offerings. Apple does provide some basic templates for these products, although nothing that ties them all together in one seamless look and feel.

Of the three choices, I personally like the Rich business pack. Which one do you like?

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October 14 MacBook Event Confirmed
Members of the media have just received word that the rumored October 14 MacBook event is rumor no more. Invitations sent by Apple’s PR department confirm that next Tuesday will see a special event hosted by the company at its Cupertino campus.

The image sent with the email and the tagline “The spotlight turns to notebooks” confirm that the event will indeed see a much-anticipated refresh of the company’s laptop line. While it’s not entirely clear in the picture, the finish on the MacBook lid does appear to support rumors of all-aluminum casing.

Once again, here’s a quick breakdown of the rumors circulating:
- New models and price points, from 8 to 12 base configurations ranging from $800-$3100
- New manufacturing process and facility to produce notebook casings from a single block of solid aluminum
- Wider touchpads, slimmer casing, and keyboards matching that found in the MacBook Air
- Nvidia integrated GPUs in MacBook line
- Possibility of in-built screens in touchpads
- Possibility of tablet-type Mac introduction (sadly seems unlikely)
What are you hoping for?

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Brick Update: Possible Leaked Photos, Price Points

A number of photos of what are supposedly new MacBook and MacBook Pro aluminum cases have begun to surface.

Yesterday, Engadget posted a picture of a MacBook Pro case in keeping with rumors of a new production process. The photo originated at a Chinese site, which lends credence to the possibility that they are real, since Apple’s manufacturing facilities are currently based in the country. And as of today, AppleInsider is claiming that their sources “confirm” that this image is in fact of the new 15-inch MacBook Pro.

Soon after the first photos appeared, a Taiwanese site posted three pictures of what it claims are the new MacBook casing, which also show an aluminum body case without keyboard or trackpad components. The space for the trackpad is significantly larger than on the current MacBook, and the case appears to be slightly slimmed down.
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YouTube Click To Buy Links and iTunes
Yesterday the YouTube team announced via their blog that they would begin incorporating “click-to-buy” links which direct users to iTunes or Amazon.com alongside videos of select YouTube partners. According to the blog, the links are intended to help scratch that “I love this song/game, I wish I could buy it right now!” itch that viewers tend to get when viewing streaming content.

Should users really dig the new in-game video for “Spore”, for instance (and not be too put off by the DRM issues), they can click on the “Buy this item” link to open a link to the purchase page for the game at Amazon.com. Music videos featuring this link (like Katy Perry’s aggressively omnipresent “I Kissed A Girl”) will direct you to the song in the iTunes store, providing Apple yet another revenue stream.
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5 (Yes, 5) Landscape Email iPhone Applications Released

In what must be related to an internal policy decision on behalf of Apple, yesterday saw the release of five separate applications (Compose, TouchType, Sideways, Lettera, and Wide Email) that allow you to compose emails in landscape mode.

Each application boasts the ability to type out email text using the much more user friendly (especially for those of us with meaty fingers) landscape iPhone keyboard, which should dramatically decrease the need for rewrites. The apps are not themselves email clients, more like notepads with the ability to export to the iPhone’s native mail application.

While some of the applications offer different spins on the landscape typing trick (including faux-vintage typewriter styling and the ability to send as .PDF in Lettera), all these ponies are essentially giving the same show. Why the sudden flood? A batch release of apps with similar functionality like this points towards a bottleneck in Apple’s approval process, possibly caused by an internal decision on what exactly exactly constitutes “duplicat[ing] the functionality” of Apple’s own software.

With issues like cut-and-paste on the iPhone, Apple has seemed to favor an “Either we do it or no one can” type of attitude when it comes to developers seeking to to fill perceived gaps in functionality. The inability to compose emails or text messages in landscape mode has been yet another such disappointment among iPhone owners, along with things like the lack of MMS messaging and A2DP Bluetooth support.

The release of these applications is at least a step in the right direction, and provides hope that there are perhaps elegant and functional third party MMS apps just waiting for Apple decision makers to admit they can’t do it all themselves. And please legitimize Podcaster. Seriously.

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iPhone Tech World Tour Announced

Apple have announced a new series of developer events aimed at those creating software for the iPhone. The event will be touring various locations in the USA, as well as Europe, Asia and India, starting with Paris and San Francisco on October 22.

Attending the event will be completely free, but Apple are warning that space is limited and requesting that those interested register early to avoid disappointment. You need to be registered as an official iPhone developer to attend (this is also free, and can be done online). According to Apple, the events will allow you to:

Learn about the tools and technologies you’ll use to create great iPhone applications, then work with the experts to optimize your code, refine your user interface, and apply the knowledge you gain from the sessions to enhance the capabilities of your iPhone application.

There are full details of the various events taking place throughout the event on the Apple site, which include Introductory Seminars, User Interface Design, Maximizing Performance and a Technical Q&A. Schedules differ slightly in non-US areas, presumably due to the varying size and scope of the events.

Interestingly, this has only been announced since the lift of the NDA ban on iPhone development. Before this, it wasn’t possible for developers to freely communicate their experience and ideas between each other (meaning that a conference dedicated to that very idea would have been impossible).

Hopefully, this new series of events and invigorated communication between developers will lead to a wave of innovative and feature-packed iPhone applications.

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Review: FastMac U-Charge for Apple Laptops
The simplest way to get extended runtime with a laptop computer is to have a second battery charged and ready. For example, with two fully-charged extended life batteries I can get more than 10 hours computing time with my old G4-upgraded Pismo PowerBook running OS X 10.4 Tiger, and that’s without resorting to any elaborate power conservation strategies. I consider that very decent performance, and it’s one of the many reasons I keep happily using these now going-on nine-year-old PowerBooks.

The sticking point is that in order to recharge the discharged batteries you have to insert them successively in the plugged-in computer’s battery bay, which takes a long time, especially if you continue to use the laptop while recharging proceeds. A freestanding battery charger speeds things up and is a very desirable accessory if you have multiple batteries for your laptop. It also frees you from having to keep the laptop tethered to an AC adapter while your spare battery recharges.

FastMac’s new U-Charge battery charger supports most G3 and later Apple laptops including iBooks, MacBooks MacBook Pros & PowerBooks (but not the MacBook Air). With U-Charge you can keep a freshly-charged spare battery at the ready without tying up your computer, since it operates externally and independently of the laptop and connects directly to the battery's terminals to recharge the battery without the necessity of inserting the battery into a laptop bay.
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IBM Extends iPhone Development to Windows/Linux Programmers
The now non-existent iPhone developer NDA seems to have been holding back a flood of useful and diverse information. IBM has contributed to this information deluge with their release of a tutorial (registration required), authored by PJ Cabrera, on how to use the Eclipse C Development Toolkit (CDT) to program native applications for the Apple iPhone with open source tools.

Unfortunately, any application you create will not be headed for the App Store any time soon since it requires you to jailbreak your device by using any one of the more popular utilities (e.g. QuickPwn, XPwn, Pwnage, and WinPwn). While many iPhone users have used these tools to “free” their devices, I am still not a proponent of doing this since the practice is not supported by Apple in any way, and their use may void the device’s warranty if Apple has evidence of third-party software modification. You also open yourself up to device corruption and security problems due to the fact that jailbroken applications have free reign over every bit of data in your phone. If you do go this route, your application will reach the widest audience via Cydia.
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