Fresh Apple: The Apple Blog (6 сообщений)

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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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Google's New Update-Engine Shifts Into High Gear
I sometimes wonder if the folks over in the Googleplex ever sleep. It seems like we have a new product or service update every other day some weeks. Google is now getting even closer to Mac desktops with the release of Update-Engine, a Mac OS X framework designed to help Apple developers keep their applications up-to-date.

Most Mac users now expect to have their applications notify them if there is a new version awaiting download and installation. There is almost a de-facto way this works thanks to the incorporation of the Sparkle framework into a whole host of applications. From a user’s perspective and from the perspective of most developers, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the way Sparkle behaves. Greg Miller, one of the developers of Update Engine, agrees that Sparkle rocks, but says there is definitely a place for Update Engine.

I would say that unless you’re having problems with Sparkle, you probably wouldn’t want to move away from it. We did not build Update Engine to steal Sparkle users—we really like Sparkle! We built Update Engine to do a few things that Sparkle doesn’t do (or at least didn’t do at the time we designed Update Engine). We needed something that could update non-bundle-based apps in addition to regular Cocoa apps. We needed something that could update root-owned products and things with, for example, kernel extensions. And we needed something that could update multiple products all at once. We also needed something that was flexible and could be extended in a number of different ways to support future products.

Our intent was not to build competition for Sparkle. We focused on different problems than those that Sparkle solves. Update Engine is a lower-level solution than Sparkle. For updating an ordinary Cocoa application, I don’t see anything wrong with using Sparkle.

The Google engineers have taken security pretty seriously and provide extensive documentation to help get even the least experienced developers up to speed pretty quickly.

There are some helpful videos/tutorials over at the Official Google Mac Blog which should make a good starting point for any developers interested in migrating to, or incorporating the functionality of Google’s open source gift into their own programs.

If you are a developer, share your thoughts about Update Engine with TAB readers in the comments. If you are “just a user,” drop a note with how you’d like to see the third-party update process improved in general.

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10M iPhones to Market

Estimates show that as September came to a close, Apple’s iPhone manufacturers should have rolled unit number 10,000,000 off their lines. Not totally shabby for 18 months of iPhones on the open market — a significant portion of that time limited to potential sales in the United States only.

To put things in perspective, iPods have historically averaged out to around 30 million units every eighteen months. So the iPhone is running at about one third of its predecessor. This number may seem far smaller, but consider that the iPhone represents a significantly greater barrier to entry due to being tied to specific cellular providers.

Let’s be clear, this pertains to units manufactured, not units sold. There have been plenty of replacements (I’ve talked to more than a few iPhone owners who are on their 2nd or even 3rd replacements…), returns, and that’s not even to mention the demo units and freebies given out to Apple staff. Regardless of the difference in sales and manufacturing numbers, this is still a big milestone for Apple.

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Quick Tip: Change iTunes Buffer Size for Smoother Streaming
When I moved in with my old roommate he already had a router…a router that did not play nice with my Macbook Air. Browsing the internet was almost as painful as being on dial up, and streaming media seemed like an impossible task.

After a while of watching videos play in stop motion through iTunes, I decided that there must be something I could do to remedy the situation. After a poking around in iTunes I found out you could change the streaming buffer size. Changing the buffer size to “Large” tells iTunes to load more of the movie/song/whatever before starting playback, that way you experience fewer (or even no) breaks in playback.

To change your buffer size for smoother streaming:
1. Launch iTunes
2. Go to Preferences
3. Go to the “Advanced” tab
4. Go to the “Streaming Buffer Size” pull down menu. If you have a slow internet connection choose the “Large” option. If you have a fast internet connection (DSL or cable modem) select the “Small” option to have streamed media playback faster.
After I switched my streaming buffer size from the default medium setting to large, my videos definitely streamed a lot smoother. As always, have fun and good luck!

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Techspansion Shutting Down Development of VisualHub/iSquint

Techspansion developer Tyler Loch, maker of the incredibly useful multimedia manipulation tools VisualHub, iSquint and AudialHub, has announced he is discontinuing all further development.

“…After much soul-searching (it’s not you, it’s me), for personal reasons, Techspansion is closing its virtual doors. The Support Forum and Support E-mail will be available for a while longer to take care of any remaining issues for you. “

Thanks for all your support. It’s been a fun ride.

This has been the main tool I use to convert content for the iPhone & Apple TV and the continued enhancements will be sorely missed, especially if Apple patches or new OS releases cause the software to break.

While there are other programs out there, VisualHub provided a clean interface with very helpful pre-sets that made it a snap to do batch conversions. Tyler was always very helpful with support questions and seems to truly appreciate his user community.

What will replace Techspansion tools in your Applications folder? What are your key conversion utilities? How will the loss of these applications impact your workflow? Drop a note in the comments with your suggestions for other TAB readers or just to say “thank you!” to Tyler for his contribution to the Mac community.

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App Store Dollar Deals: Moto Chaser and Solebon Solitaire

Freeverse’s App Store launch title Wingnuts Moto Chaser and Smallware’s Solebon Solitaire, two games which have received fairly high praise from reviewers, are on on sale for a limited time for only $0.99.

Moto Chaser (normally $5.99) is an accelerometer-controlled motorcycle racing game, with a variety of lush environments and Road Rash-style on-bike combat. Players can select from multiple difficulty levels, a variety of riders and motorcycles. Steering is controlled by tilting the iPhone or iPod touch to either side, while a button on the lower left of the screen controls the gas. Available here.

Solebon Solitaire (normally $9.99) includes 20 different Solitaire card games, including Kondike Deal 1 and Deal 3, Free Cell and Spiderette. Card suit icons and numbers are large for added readability on the iPhone’s relatively small screen, and features stat tracking, scorekeeping, unlimited undo and autoplay. Get it here.

If you come across any special pricing, drop us a line and we’ll include it in our next round.

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Update: More "Brick" Rumors, Nvidia MacBook GPUs

A few days ago we posted a story about the much-sensationalized upcoming Apple mystery product, “The Brick.” While there is still no definite word regarding what it actually is, 9to5mac is now reporting that a “reliable” source has lead them to believe that “The Brick” is not a product at all, but rather a production process and the facility to house it.

The blog cites Steve Jobs’ experience with in-house manufacturing during his days helming NeXT computers, and their earlier accuracy in predicting the arrival of a number of Apple products prior to launch (aluminum iMacs, MacBook Air, etc.) to back up their claims.
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