Fresh Apple: The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) (11 сообщений)

На что подписаться? | Управление подпиской

The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
http://www.tuaw.com
рекомендовать друзьям >>

Last chance for two App Store freebies
Filed under: Deals, iPhone, App Store

There are lots of iPhone app discounts to be had for the remaining 3 hours of the day (that's ET -- different developers may trigger the return to regular pricing at different times, although I believe 'official App Store time' is PT), but two in particular caught my eye as excellent temp-free apps, and probably worth their regular prices as well.

Houdah Software's ACTPrinter addresses a longstanding challenge for the iPhone: how to easily get PDF files or other printables onto the device without having to email them to yourself. Using a driver on the Mac side to wirelessly ship the printed doc across to the device is a delightful approach to the problem, and from what I've seen it works like a charm (you can judge for yourself via this screencast). Such a bargain! ACTPrinter is normally $0.99.

For a different moneysaving strategy, check out MeterRead from Zerogate. This app (video demo here) lets you keep track of your electrical usage by saving and analyzing your meter statistics. Does the dishwasher use more power than the air hockey table? Do compact-fluorescent bulbs save major kilowatts, or just a trickle? You can find out with MeterRead; the developer cites a study that indicates 10-20% electrical savings for motivated consumers who analyze their usage. MeterRead is normally $2.99.

Last chance to submit your favorite App Store ephemeral freebies in the comments!

TUAW Last chance for two App Store freebies originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 28 Nov 2008 21:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Переслать
iPhone hackers achieve a milestone: Linux boot
Filed under: OS, Open Source, iPhone, Jailbreak/pwnage
Call it the Touchable Penguin. OK, the touchscreen drivers aren't there yet, but the simple, scrolling shell output of a Linux kernel running on the iPhone represents a big achievement for the iPhone Dev Team and dev lead 'planetbeing.' The build is far from complete -- no wireless networking, no sound, no writeable support for the NAND flash memory -- but it's still very cool, and the effort involved was substantial (the team had to reverse-engineer the iPhone's boot loader so they could write their own).

Having a working Linux kernel on jailbroken iPhones and iPod touch handhelds might seem frivolous, but imagine the ability to run other touch phone OS platforms on top of an iPhone (like, perhaps, Android)... very tempting. You can see more of the rationale behind the Linux-on-iPhone project here, or you can skip to the second half of this post to see the video.

[via Engadget & Erica]
Continue reading iPhone hackers achieve a milestone: Linux boot
TUAW iPhone hackers achieve a milestone: Linux boot originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 28 Nov 2008 20:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Переслать
Discounts, doorbusters, and more: TUAW sampler of holiday savings
Filed under: Features, Deals, Holidays

Just because Apple aficionados have historically been willing to pay a modest premium for the world's best computers, music players and cellphones, that doesn't mean they don't enjoy the occasional bargain as much as their Windows-using, Zune-toting, Blackberry-typing brethren. In the spirit of healthy holiday consumerism, here's our list (far from comprehensive) of a few select deals for the Black Friday sales. You can get full-on shop-till-you-drop coverage at dealmac.com, and quick overviews from Gizmodo and dealNN.

Naturally, Amazon and Newegg both have big discounts on most gear for today -- not all of it is good for Macheads but there are plenty of treats on the hard drive, headphone and camera front. Amazon is selling SwissGear backpacks for $24, which is tempting, and shows the iPod touch 8GB at $209; that's likely to be matched by the Apple Store's one-day discount as it rolls around the globe. Newegg has the usual excellent pricing on hard drives and flash memory, although not much on the 'secret deals page' is overly Apple-oriented; $19 for an 8 GB flash drive might raise some eyebrows and liberate some funds, though.

The heat on hardware is also clearly set to 'high' with the discounts from Best Buy, MacMall and MacConnection. Right now MacConnection is showing the best deal on my benchmark machine (the midrange MacBook unibody), with a selling price of $1149 -- keep an eye on the other sites too, as MacMall is right behind at $1179.

If you love to watch TV on your shiny Mac screen, there's a deal for you too. Elgato is offering $50 off of the $149 EyeTV Hybrid HDTV tuner and DVR software bundle today. This is a particularly good item for anyone who has an older analog TV in a spot where they don't have cable or satellite but they do have a computer -- it's a great way to get through the digital transition in February of 2009, as domestic US television drops its analog signals for good.

Nobody can live by hardware alone, though, and there are plenty of software and accessory vendors who want to grab their fair share of your gift budget. A few of note below...

Continue reading Discounts, doorbusters, and more: TUAW sampler of holiday savings
TUAW Discounts, doorbusters, and more: TUAW sampler of holiday savings originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 28 Nov 2008 02:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Переслать
Love that yellow sticky note...
Filed under: Deals, Holidays

...for the downtime in the store means that the Black Friday discounts will soon be up in the US. We already know the rough scale of the savings -- modest, not dramatic -- so don't get too excited!

Thanks to everyone who sent this in. Now, go to bed and sleep off that load of turkey.
TUAW Love that yellow sticky note... originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 28 Nov 2008 00:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Переслать
Touchgrind in the App Store
Filed under: Gaming, Odds and ends, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch

I remain a complete non-fan of "fingerboarding," or skateboarding on a miniature skateboard with your fingers, but on the other hand (so to speak), I'm a huge fan of physics, especially on a touchscreen, so I'm torn about the release of Touchgrind, which has now made its way into the App Store for $4.99. Playing with a tiny skateboard in real-life seems kind of silly. But playing with a virtual skateboard that responds realistically to your fingers flipping and tapping on a multitouch screen could be really, really awesome -- like a skating game with the best controls ever.

Unfortunately, there's no free demos here -- either you jump in for $5 or you don't. But if you do, there's actually a lot on offer -- 3 game modes, 12 different boards each with their own abilities, and a set of tutorials to get you started. I'm intrigued: I'm not quite sure a mini skateboard will keep my attention for all that long, but it might be worth $5 just to see the physics in action.
TUAW Touchgrind in the App Store originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 27 Nov 2008 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Переслать
TUAW talks to boxee and brings you invites
Filed under: iTunes, Open Source, Mac mini, Interviews, TUAW Interview, Beta Beat, Apple TV

Happy Thanksgiving! I'm super thankful that I have been able to spend the last 13 months blogging for TUAW and interacting with all of you. On a more superficial note, I am also thankful for my Macs and all the cool stuff Apple products enable me to do.

The newest member of my Apple family is the Apple TV. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to talk to Avner and Andrew from boxee, the company behind the social media player of the same name. Boxee released an update earlier this week, but the next big version is set for December 4, 2008. Avner and Andrew were nice enough to answer my questions, share some details about the future of boxee and best of all, provide a link so that TUAW readers can join in the fun! If you want to try boxee on your Mac or Apple TV, enter your e-mail address at http://boxee.tv/tuaw and you should get an invite within 24 hours.

In the comments, on Twitter and via e-mail, many of you have asked questions about boxee, its limitations and its future. I took these questions and comments to Avner and Andrew, and here's what I got back.

On .MKV support for Apple TV

Boxee supports the .MKV container and if you are using a Mac mini, MacBook, iMac or Mac Pro, boxee can play back 1080p .mkv files without a problem. Apple TV is limited by its processor and GPU, and it maxes out playing back 420p and 720p .MKV content. I don't usually deal with .MKV, but a quick Google search turned up a lot of information about programs that can be used to convert files. Apparently, the PS3 has this same limitation.

Hulu performance

A number of users have complained about the quality of boxee's Hulu playback. I also noticed a decrease in quality after the latest update. The update on December 4 is going to address this. The big problem, for Apple TV owners, is once again the limitations of the hardware. Seeing as Apple TV's can stream HD content from iTunes (when downloading anyway), I think this is something that can be greatly improved, but it might take some time. Boxee is still in alpha and the goal is to enter beta sometime next year, so while I think the fact that Hulu is supported at all is fantastic, the Apple TV experience might take some time to fully evolve. If you are using a Mac for boxee playback, your performance will be much better.

Continue reading TUAW talks to boxee and brings you invites
TUAW TUAW talks to boxee and brings you invites originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 27 Nov 2008 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Переслать
Apple Store Australia posts Apple holiday sale discounts
Filed under: Deals, Holidays
Thanks to the magic of the International Date Line, it's already Friday in Australia -- hence the early appearance of the Apple Store discounts for the first Friday of the holiday shopping season. The one-day gift discounts are nice but nothing to jump up and down about... the headliner is probably the A$161 off of the 13" MacBook laptop.

We'll keep an eye out for the US numbers and update you on more shopping deals throughout the day today and tomorrow.

[via Engadget]
TUAW Apple Store Australia posts Apple holiday sale discounts originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 27 Nov 2008 12:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Переслать
Steep discounts on Microsoft Office 2008 for Friday
Filed under: Software, Deals
Say what you will about Microsoft Office 2008, but even with the advent of productivity suites in the cloud and from the open source world, there's still a lot to be said for having the industry standard package tucked away on your Mac in case you need it. If you don't own it yet, you might consider picking up a copy today: there are multiple deals on Office 2008 Special Media Edition, which includes Expression Media 2 (successor to the veteran content manager iView Media).

Microsoft has dropped the list price of the software to $149 for today only, a 70% discount, and you can do even better than that: Amazon has a one-hour deal for $99 for Office 2008 SME, expiring shortly; for even more savings, NYC retailer Tekserve has the same product for $79, good through 11/30, along with a pageful of other Mac and iPod deals. Time to warm up the checkbook.

Thanks TJ & everyone who sent this in.
TUAW Steep discounts on Microsoft Office 2008 for Friday originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 27 Nov 2008 12:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Переслать
Mmmmm...Hot Apple Mac mini pie for Thanksgiving
Filed under: Humor, Cult of Mac, Mac mini, Holidays
While purists may sneer, there are a lot of us who love apple pie for Thanksgiving dinner instead of the traditional pumpkin pie. After seeing this Apple Mac mini pie and the dough-logo Apple pie, you may never want to eat pumpkin pie again.

The geniuses at Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories provide step-by-step instructions on how to make your own Mac mini Apple pie. While not everyone has a 45-watt carbon dioxide laser to cut the fancy Apple logo-shaped lattice on top, I'm sure you can get perfectly fine results using an X-acto knife or some other sharp cutting instrument.

For those of you on the West coast of the U.S., there's still time to run out, buy a square Springform pan, pick up a carbon dioxide laser, and get one of these pies cranked out just in time for Thanksgiving dinner.

Don't have the engineering acumen for a square pie in a round-pie world? You could use the overlay method that Dana Knisely attempted successfully this year, for a well-branded and well-browned postprandial treat.

There's no word on whether sun-stamped apples were used in the making of either of these scrumptious desserts. (Update: Dana's husband Matt reports that her pie features 100% organically grown Pennsylvania apples. Yum!)

For all our readers in the US and friends across the globe, TUAW wishes you a very happy Thanksgiving.

Thanks to tipsters hc & Chris for this Thanksgiving treat!
TUAW Mmmmm...Hot Apple Mac mini pie for Thanksgiving originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 27 Nov 2008 11:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Переслать
uTorrent for Mac beta officially released
Filed under: Internet Tools, Beta Beat

Way back in June of 2007, rumors of a beta version of uTorrent for the Mac first started making waves. For the uninitiated, uTorrent is a super-lightweight BitTorrent client which is widely considered the best in the business. Sadly, it has remained a Windows-only option. A few months ago, an alpha version was leaked (appropriately, on a BitTorrent tracker), but it was alpha, buggy and had a minimal UI (even by uTorrent standards).

Today, uTorrent has officially released its first Mac beta for Intel Macs running OS X 10.5 Leopard. It doesn't have all the features of its Windows counterpart (it's missing the RSS downloader, for instance) but it has a nice interface and the signature uTorrent low-memory footprint.

The only real question will be, is this too little too late? When uTorrent for the Mac was first announced 18 months ago, the BitTorrent client landscape was very different. Transmission was still new and buggy and Vuze (nee Azureus) suffered from significant problems with Tiger and Java. Today, Transmission is a full featured client and Vuze, although still a memory hog, is signicantly faster and more stable in Leopard.

This doesn't mean that it isn't great to finally have uTorrent for OS X -- it just means that the client will need to do more than just exist to get many users to switch over.

uTorrent for Mac is free. It is beta software and it will have bugs, but it is available now.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

TUAW uTorrent for Mac beta officially released originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 26 Nov 2008 22:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Переслать
What to get the person with everything - Holiday Gift Guide
Filed under: Accessories, Cult of Mac, Holidays
If your diamond-encrusted iPod case is wearing out, or you simply must coat your new MacBook in gold, this list is for you. Presenting the most expensive, ridiculous and sublime gifts for the Apple fan in your life.

18-karat gold iPod shuffle
It isn't enough to have a gold shuffle. How about a gold shuffle that cost you more than $10,000? Or even twice that? Well, here you go -- this coating will cost you plenty but it does come with a wooden box and a certificate.

Casa Gi Diamond Earbuds
There's an entire industry around diamond-and-gold audio headgear. Just check out this gallery over at Luxist. The Casa Gi set (from Italy, of course) wins points because I think they look like I would have seen them on "Falcon Crest," had earbuds been around in the 80's.

Beatles Collector's Box
Even though we may not see the Beatles in iTunes any time soon, you can still cram them into your iPod the old fashioned way: rip them. Yes, even this $795 set makes you put the music into iTunes yourself. It comes with 13 of the fab four's CD's, however and a 120GB iPod classic, but still... I guess you could throw in a Ripstyles offer?

The Ultimate Minimalist Desk
If you didn't already know, Steve Jobs doesn't like cords and clutter. If I bought him a gift, I'd send him this desk. In steel, definitely.

Keep reading for more diamonds, a fridge that acts as an iPhone accessory, and more.

Gallery: Really expensive Mac and iPod, iPhone stuff
Continue reading What to get the person with everything - Holiday Gift Guide
TUAW What to get the person with everything - Holiday Gift Guide originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 26 Nov 2008 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Переслать