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- Give Good Food to Your Mac: Software Discounts
The idea of a ‘bundle’ promotion is a common occurrence in the Mac software world. The most widely publicized event centered around great deals on indie Mac software is MacHeist. The general idea is that bundling a package of applications together leads to a great deal for you, the user, and also generates a huge amount of publicity for the featured applications.
A similar promotion has launched this week, with a few notable differences. Give Good Food to Your Mac (organized by Aquafadas) offers a huge range of different applications, with discounts increasing progressively depending upon the number of applications you purchase.
Claudia Zimmer, Aquafadas’ CEO explains:
We are pleased to introduce the Third Edition of ‘Give Good Food to your Mac’. It’s a chance for us to build a community among developers and together, create opportunities that would not be possible alone. Mac users benefit from it as they can discover our software at great prices.
The Discounts Available
While the promotion doesn’t feature the world’s catchiest name, it does give some great discounts. Buying 3 apps saves you 20%, 4 apps saves 30%, and 5 or more knocks a whopping 50% off the normal retail price. As you add applications to your cart, it’s simple to see how much you stand to save, along with how many more applications you need to reach the next level.
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Переслать - iPhone Spelling Mistake Blunder
It’s generally taken for granted that a cutting edge company such as Apple has a well oiled system of editors and copywriters who check software releases for errors before they go live. Unfortunately, it seems that the system has broken down with the latest iPhone software release.
Apple has written the Categories menu on the new Podcast download area of the new app as “Catagories”. The error is even more unfortunate, as the correct spelling of the word can be seen at the bottom of the page.
Macworld humorously referenced back to Scott Forstall, Apple’s vice president of platform experience, who said:
I actually have a photographer’s loupe that I use to make sure every pixel is right. We will argue over literally a single pixel.
I’ve done the math, and in order to miss the word ‘Catagories’, Scott has overlooked eight hundred and six pixels… He needs to have a few strong words with whoever has been delegated the loupe in recent months.
It will be interesting to see what move Apple takes to correct this. Will they treat it as a priority and push out another software release fairly quickly, or will they simply wait until the next iPhone software update is due? Personally, I expect they’ll wait for a future release — updating the software on your iPhone can be a fairly lengthy process for users (especially those with slow internet connections), and they’re unlikely to be too concerned with a minor spelling error.
I’m interested to know — have you ever noticed any spelling mistakes with previous releases (iPhone or otherwise)?
EDIT: Well, it looks like Apple quickly fixed that issue by updating the download package. How unfortunate (for this article).
Переслать - iPhone 2.2 Firmware Released, Google Maps and Podcasts Take Center Stage
Today Apple released the iPhone 2.2 firmware update and it is available to download throught iTunes. Just click on “check for updates” to force iTunes to call home and start downloading the latest update.
While some iPhone pages have not been updated yet, you can download a new iPhone User Guide from Apple.com that outlines how to use these new features. Developers will also find an updated iPhone SDK in the iPhone Dev Center.
Browsing through the menus, it looks like the background push notification service that was promised (~56:35) for September is still missing. But what is there looks nice.
The new Street View in Maps is awesome. I’ve found that feature really useful at times when I want to get an idea of what a building looks like before I head out on the road. The other thing I’m really excited about? The new option to click the Home button to jump to the first Home screen. I have my icons arranged to put the most important items on the first page. I’ll definitely use this option so I can quickly jump back to my main apps instead of swiping, swiping, swiping, etc. to get back to the first page (why doesn’t Apple just let home screens wrap around so swiping to the right of the last page takes you back to the first page?).
(more…)Переслать - Autodesk Serving Up Sketchbook Express With Axiotron Apple Tablet
It’s likely you’ve heard mention of the Axiotron Modbook, the third party (and only) Apple tablet computing solution, but I like talking about it anyway. Axiotron, a small company operating out of El Segundo, California, won high acclaim for their Modbook, taking best in show at 2007’s Macworld convention.
The Modbook is a converted Macbook, equipped with a Wacom-penabled touchscreen display. It’s a drool-worthy piece of tech, especially for graphic designers who do a lot of field work. And now you can drool even more, because the Modbook now comes complete with Sketchbook Express 2009, an exclusive version of Autodesk’s graphics software.
(more…)Переслать - iPhone Your Life: Apple Tries to Get its App Store Act Together
There have been a lot of complaints about the organization of the App Store. Yes, you can search, and browse by category, but the sheer volume of apps available and the relatively simple App Store design make finding something without knowing exactly what you’re looking for a bit of a nightmare. Luckily, you have us to sift through the mess and find the diamonds. Now, you also have the official Apple “iPhone Your Life” website.Apple appears to have taken a page out of Mozilla’s playbook, since iPhone Your Life presents select iPhone apps in a way very similar to Fashion Your Firefox’s organization of add-ons for their popular internet browser. As on the Mozilla site, items are organized into broad categories that attempt to group apps by use and/or context for use. Apple provides five categories:
- Around Town: Location-aware apps and directories for finding things to do, eat, etc.
- World Travel: Map, language, and conversion apps for smooth globe-trotting.
- At Home: Past-times and fun for the family, plus apps that interact with your Mac.
- Getting Things Done: A lot of (surprise!) GTD apps.
- Fun and Games: Many of the higher profile games available for the iPhone, and some silliness.
Each category’s page presents a brief description of around ten apps that are somehow connected with the overall theme. Submenus containing lists of Top Apps or Staff Picks in the category are also included. Pages can be sent to a friend using convenient links following the App descriptions.
The site seems to be aimed at relatively novice users, and is probably designed more as a supplement to the ongoing iPhone “Dilemmas” campaign than as a functional, thematic app browser. Still, iPhone Your Life is well presented, and might reveal a hidden gem or two that you’ve somehow neglected to pick up on in your obsessive refreshing of AppShopper.com. Or maybe I’m just projecting.
Переслать - VMware Fusion On Sale
Black Friday sale prices are coming a little early for those of you looking to buy VMware Fusion this month. Our readers report that VMware is sending out emails with a 25% off coupon.Get 25% off automatically when you purchase VMware Fusion online, using the coupon code “FusionRocks” for a limited time only.
VMware Fusion has been my recommendation for some time because of the wide support for guest OS’s including OS X Server, but the new Parallels Desktop 4.0 release does a lot to close the gap. I imagine the coupon is motivated in part by the increased competition from Parallels 4.0 this month.
Our own Darrell Etherington wrote up a comparison of VMware Fusion 2.0 and Parallels 4.0 where he slightly preferred Fusion. Now it is even a better deal at 25% off.
The coupon expires at midnight (Pacific time) at Sunday, November 30.
Переслать - Mini DisplayPort to Dual-DVI Delayed Until December 23
As if it wasn't aggravating enough that new MacBook owners had to go out and replace all of their video adapters since Mini-DVI has been phased out and Mini DisplayPort introduced, today those lucky enough to have a 30-inch external monitor are now out of luck…again.
In an email to customers who'd purchased the Apple Mini DisplayPort to Dual-DVI adapter, which is required to get full-resolution support on 30-inch external monitors, Apple regrettably informed those affected that they wouldn't see delivery of their items until December 23. At least it’s before Christmas, right? Still leaves you time to wrap it and stuff it in that stocking.
Seriously, this is a significant delay for a product that many users depend upon for professional and work-related purposes. The original timeline for the adapter's release already saw it coming a full month after the new MacBooks and MacBook Pros shipped, which had many users already complaining. With another month added, accusations that Apple is dropping the ball will only get louder.
The adapter, which costs $99, also occupies an additional USB slot to fulfill its power needs. The product's ordering page at the Apple Store now shows expected shipping time at 4 to 5 weeks. In the letter notifying purchasers of the new shipping date, Apple cites only "an unexpected delay" as the cause of the additional wait time. They also offer the option of canceling your order in exchange for a full refund, but that's not really an option if you need the adapter. Read the full notification email at 9to5mac.
It appears as though they're having trouble dealing with their rapid growth. Has this delay affected you in any way?
Переслать - OrbLive Media Streamer for iPhone
Orb Networks has officially announced the availability of their OrbLive 2.0 app for iPhone/iPod touch.
OrbLive enables users to stream media content from their computer — music, internet radio stations, videos, photos, webcam streams, and even live TV (with a TV Tuner) — to their touch device over Wi-Fi and 2G/3G cellular networks. Working in conjunction with a free Windows PC application, OrbLive removes the limitations of hard drive capacities and by utilizing Orb’s “powerful networking capabilities” allows users access to their entire media library anywhere they can connect to the internet. The app also gives users the ability to preview all their Office documents (docs, xls, pdf, ppt, txt file formats are all supported). However, it should be noted that since OrbLive is dependent on the server application to be running, users will have to launch Boot Camp or their choice of virtualization software to make use of the app on their device, though Orb did say they are working on a OS X and Linux version.
Originally released as a jailbreak app, OrbLive 2.0, with the advent of the App Store, brings the myriad of streaming options to those uninterested in jailbreaking their device. The app is available now in two flavors, the full version for $9.99 and a free version that limits you to three randomly selected files of each media type, but beyond that neither require any recurring service fees.
In my brief testing of the application, it worked exactly as advertised and allowed me access to all the media files from my WinXP partition with just a few clicks. The video streaming, though, left a lot to be desired, even over a local Wi-Fi network as it appears to be transcoded and thus was severely pixelated at times. You also couldn’t fast-foward/rewind. However, despite these minor quibbles, OrbLive is a boon to those with large media libraries, those indecisive about what to sync, and of course those that interested in watching live TV on their touch device.
For additional reading about OrbLive, be sure to check jkOnTheRun’s coverage.
Переслать - Frenzic Finally Comes Home
Iconfactory and ARTIS Software bring their game, Frenzic, to the iPhone. Finally! I’ve been waiting for this since before the iPhone even came to market. The simple yet challenging pie-based puzzle game really, truly seems like a match made in geek heaven, as the co-founder of Iconfactory once said.So often — as John Gruber points out – games built for the desktop PC don’t translate well to a hand held device such as the iPhone. But this time it seems to be different. The touch controls make for quite a natural playing experience in Frenzic (for iPhone), in fact, more so than with the typical mouse pointing interface. This will definitely be my new bathroom game time-waster of choice. And if I may gush, just a little, the Frenzic UI is just so sharp, responsive, and downright perfect for the iPhone platform!
If you’re new to Frenzic, you can give it a whirl on your Mac for free to see if you dig it. If it’s nothing new for you, you might be so inclined to check it out in the App Store. It’s $4.99, which seems to be in about the middle of the majority of iPhone App pricing. Your mileage may vary, but I find it a very solid five bucks to spend in the App Store.
Side note — this is the first time I’ve noticed that iTunes links are going to a clean URL at itunes.com (http://www.itunes.com/app/Frenzic), versus the typical ‘phobos’ link. Am I just behind the curve (not at all out of the question!) or is this newly implemented by Apple? From what I can tell, itunes.apple.com and itunes.com are the new phobos, though some URLs are cleaner than others (Frenzic in this case).
Переслать - The Storm Arrives: Is It Just A Drizzle?
The Blackberry Storm will be available on 11/21 in the U.S. It’s getting some early reviews and they’re a mixed bag. Will this be an “iPhone killer”, will it have similar problems that the Bold encountered, or at the end of the day is it just another Blackberry (not that that’s a bad thing)? A couple of things I’ve gathered so far that are worth emphasizing:
- Everyone talks about it costing $200 in the U.S. with a two-year Verizon contract, but the real cost is $250. That’s what they’ll take from you, that’s what you’ll see coming out of your bank account, and that’s what’s gonna be on your receipt. Afterwards, if you tackle the paperwork and wait a month or two, they’ll send you a $50 debit card in the mail.
- Data/Voice plans appear on a par with AT&T and others (around $70/month), but keep in mind the visual voice mail Verizon offers is an additional $3 a month.
- Turn by turn directions are available, but that’s another $10 a month.
- For Mac users, there’s no updated MacMediaCenter app available yet to move media to the device.
- No Wi-Fi. Verizon says it would just eat up battery life, but that’s wrong; Wi-Fi uses less juice than 3G.
Переслать - Apple TV 2.3 Update Adds Refinements, Kills Boxee
Late on Wednesday, Apple released the Apple TV 2.3 software update. This update adds a few refinements to Apple TV, but doesn’t offer any breakthrough new features. If you read my post about boxee and installed it on your Apple TV, you’ll want to wait because boxee won’t run after updating.Apple’s summary of the 2.3 update highlights four key features that have been updated..
- AirTunes Streaming from Apple TV
- Third-party Remote Controls
- Playlists
- Music Volume Control
The AirTunes update allows the Apple TV to become a source for other AirTunes speakers in the house. I haven’t been able to test this because I only have one Apple TV, and no Airport Express, but this sounds like a great feature for party music. You can now select the music or playlist on the Apple TV and have it play elsewhere in the house. No word yet on if this means simultaneous output to local speakers and remote speakers, or just output to remote speakers and no local audio. And sorry, I don’t have the setup to test it myself.
(more…)Переслать - A Great Christmas Gift: iPhoto Calendars
It’s the time of year when — love it or hate it — you need to start thinking about Christmas shopping. If you’re the kind of person who prefers to leave their shopping until Christmas Eve, then by all means skip on to the next post! I prefer to plan ahead and beat some of the mad Christmas rush. Even better than high street shopping, I’ve found that my Mac is capable of producing some fantastic gifts for friends and family.Today I’ll be briefly showing how easy it is to create a beautiful calendar using iPhoto, complete with all your important dates for the year and some seasonal photography.
(more…)Переслать - Unlocking the iPhone 3G With Proxy SIMs
In the interests of all those readers who need to unlock their iPhone 3G’s for use on different carriers, I donned my investigative hat and tested an iPhone 3G unlock that really seems to work.
While the iPhone Dev Team plunder the secrets of the mysterious baseband in search of the ever elusive software unlock, some of us regular users just can’t wait. In this article, I’ll run you through a typical hardware unlock process, highlighting some of the quirks and a couple of awful potential drawbacks.
As some of this is arguably questionable, The Apple Blog must warn you that you’re doing this at your own risk. Seriously. In fact, one iPhone 3G was totally borked in the process of testing this — almost relegated to a desolate Apple graveyard; nevertheless, in the interest of finding out if we really could unlock the iPhone 3G, we persevered.
Again, The Apple Blog does not endorse your attempts at any of what follows, it could ruin your iPhone. Furthermore, this is not an official solution and as such, it is totally unsupported by Apple. That being said, let the fun begin.
(more…)Переслать - MobileMe: What it Syncs, When it Syncs, and Why I'm Staying With It
Recently MacLife magazine reviewed Apple’s MobileMe service. My problem with the review is that it lists something as a negative that continues to spread misinformation: Doesn't "push" your email instantly, rather every 15 minutes.
This is wrong. In this article I’ll touch on what gets synced with MobileMe, when it occurs, and why I’m happy with it.
First, keep in mind the following about MobileMe:
- Many think MMe is just email, contacts, and calendars, but that underrates the service. I’ll discuss everything MMe can sync.
- The sync process depends on what is syncing, and where the update was made.
- Updates can be made on as many as three different “device types.” I’ll refer to them as the Web, which means you’re logged into www.me.com, the iPhone, and the Desktop, which means a desktop computer.
- While the iPhone and desktop can have their sync/push configured, the web always syncs/pushes.
Переслать - TheAppleBlog On Twitter!
Well it took long enough! Your favorite blog has finally got its act together and jumped on the social bandwagon!
You can now follow TheAppleBlog on Twitter!
We won’t be doing anything lame like just streaming our articles directly to our Twitter account…there’s a real, live human being handling this.
So, delay no more and give TheAppleBlog a follow!
Переслать - MMS for iPhone? It's Already Here, Says Mobispine
Multimedia messaging (MMS) is within reach for iPhone users, or at least that’s what Mobispine AB is saying via press release today.
The Stockholm-based mobile services company currently provides white lable RSS reader and Desktop SMS and MMS solutions to companies looking to get their own branded mobile service. Today they announced that they are now offering yet another brandable service: MMS capability for the Apple iPhone.
The lack of MMS has long been one of the most glaring omissions in the iPhone’s feature set, and is available on much less advanced handsets from all major manufacturers. Third-party applications like Flutter have attempted to bring workaround solutions to the platform, but to limited success and with awkward restrictions on how messages are sent and received.
Mobispine’s solution is targeted at providers, not individual consumers. Essentially, it would add backend support for sending and receiving MMS from a carrier-branded MMS interface. This conveniently avoids the need for Apple buy-in, since individual operators would be the ones making the decision as to whether or not they will offer the service.
Apple still needs to OK the service implementation through the App Store approval process, however, since it would operate through a custom-branded native iPhone app. On the end-user side, iPhone owners will be able to create MMS messages from within the application, and attach photos saved to the iPhone’s hard drive, or new pictures taken with the iPhone’s camera. MMS messages will also be received via the Mobispine app, not in the iPhone’s built in SMS application. According to the press release, MMS messaging to and from all capable handsets will be possible, so non-iPhone users will not require any special software or have to visit any external links.
Since the decision to pursue the service is up to operators, it’ll be interesting to see who bites. Likely candidates are markets where more than one provider offers the iPhone, or where existing sales numbers indicate that the market appears saturated, and to get more customers requires offering some perceived value-add to justify an iPhone purchase. There’s also a possibility that carriers could charge for the additional service.
iPhone users: Is MMS important to you? Would you like to see your carrier implement this solution, or would you rather wait for an official Apple MMS service, if one comes at all? Would you pay for the MMS service if your carrier decides to charge a fee?
Переслать - Snow Leopard Coming in Q1 2009
We knew we weren’t going to have to wait too long for Snow Leopard (10.6) to make its appearance on store shelves, but according to MacRumors, things just got a little more specific courtesy of a slide from a conference presentation.
Apple’s Director of Engineering for their Unix Tech branch, Jordan Hubbard, spoke at the Large Installation System Administration (LISA) conference last week, and his slide deck included the gem pictured here. His topic was the evolution of OS X from large servers to embedded platforms, which featured the release schedule pictured, with a fairly specific (compared to vague “one year” timelines talked about when Snow Leopard was announced at WDC 2008) Q1 2009 date of arrival.
(more…)Переслать - Speaking to Google Voice Search
Last week I wrote a piece detailing Google’s new voice searching functionality for the iPhone, and at the time sources predicted a Friday launch. Well, it didn’t come Friday, but it’s finally here, and based on early impressions, it’s an impressive piece of software.
I downloaded the updated application late last night. Being a chronic mumbler, I wasn’t expecting much out of Google’s speech recognition tech. Saying the word “elephant” as I normally would, without taking extra care to enunciate, I fully expected to be greeted with search results for “ill F-1’s” or something equally garbled. The app had no problem deciphering my garbled request, however, and returned the correct results. Time for something more complicated.This time I wanted to see if the much-talked-about semantic search capabilities actually worked, so I asked my iPhone some questions like “Where is the closest sushi place?”. Again, though I was prepared to be let down, I wasn’t. After the top result, which was a general info sushi page, local results near Toronto, ON (which is in fact where I live) were displayed, complete with contact numbers and links to get directions. Voice search is not limited to web results, either. You can say someone’s name to bring up that person’s contact entry from the Address Book.
(more…)Переслать - New MacBook HDCP Impairing External Displays
In what seems like another addition to a long list of examples of how when you rent digital content, you’re actually renting it with a strict set of conditions, Apple owners are running into trouble with High Definition Content Protection (HDCP). The problem, affecting owners of the new aluminum MacBooks and MacBook Pro, occurs when you try to play some iTunes-rented movies on an external display attached to your notebook.
The HDCP causing the problem is intended to prevent copying high-def content across an HDMI connection. It’s also included in DisplayPort tech, which is the new standard for video output on current generation Mac portable computers. According to Ars Technica, the problem seems to affect movies protected by Apple’s FairPlay Version 3 DRM, although not all files which have Version 3 protection are affected. Whether or not the movie plays appears to be somewhat random, at least in Ars’ limited sample pool.
The person who pointed out the problem to Ars was just trying to play Hellboy 2 for a class of high school students using an external projector. Another case reported in an Apple support discussion thread occurred when a MacBook owner tried to playback content to his external 19-inch monitor. This report was quickly joined by many, many others. In all cases, playback works fine on the computer’s built-in display.
(more…)Переслать
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