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TheAppleBlog
TheAppleBlog, 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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Developer Says He Uses Cover Flow, App is Rejected, Developer Surprised
So a new app for the App Store was rejected for using private APIs. Let’s see if I can get in front of this before all of the “OMG!! Apple wrongly rejects another iPhone app!!” articles begin to appear. Please keep in mind that none of this is meant to disparage the app itself, which appears quite nice.

In truth, the app does not use any private APIs. Rather, the developer built his own implementation for displaying and swiping pictures that looks just like Apple’s Cover Flow. If you look at the demos, you’ll see that it appears to be a very good copy of the CF effect. Given that, I can almost agree with the developer when he says:

I suppose I should be flattered that Apple mistook it for their own implementation

Certainly, the nice implementation had something to do with it. But maybe there was some other factor at work? You know, like the fact that the developer claimed it was Cover Flow!
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Weekly App Store Roundup: Dec. 13th, 2008
The world slows down for another couple of days as we hit the weekend and take a few moments to catch our breath. It’s been another hectic week here at TAB, we considered the potential arrival of a Nintendo Wii-style iPhone, rejoiced at the release of a multi-touch Firefox Beta, extolled the virtues of Mac-augmented exercise regimes and explained how you can make your Mac even cooler (it’s a poor pun and yet I’m not apologizing for it).

Now it’s that special moment that happens ever Saturday at TAB where, after a week of trawling through the latest App Store releases, I hand-pick a few interesting specimens especially for your perusal.

This week I’m looking at Songbird Remote, Slydial, TED and DTESS Aphid Attack.
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iMuffs Wireless Headphones for iPhone

Wi-Gear recently announced a new revision of their iMuffs Wireless Headphones, with full support for the the iPhone. The new iMuffs support iPhones, iPod nanos, iPod touch, and all iPods with a dock connector, have improved Bluetooth range and improved radio interference rejection. This helps to remove interruptions from microwaves, Wi-Fi, and other stray radio sources (giving an overall clearer sound).

The headphones function up to 40 feet away from your iPhone (in a obstacle free environment), and allow you to keep your music player anywhere within Bluetooth range of your ears.

One major downside is the fact that the in-built Bluetooth capabilities of the iPhone are not accessible to developers. This means that the iMuffs require an additional dock adaptor to send the audio signal. It would have been far more aesthetically pleasing if Wi-Gear were able to utilize the on-board Bluetooth.
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Daily Apple: More Clones, More Stark, More iPhones, More Flatulence, More Organized
EFi-X USA To Begin Shipping OS X-Friendly Computers - That’s EFi-X USA. Not to be confused with EFi-X, which has nothing to do with the new doppleganger. Except that they’ll offer the EFi-X dongle for sale with their new, OS X ready PCs, which are high-end, powerful computers. They won’t actually be installing OS X, but they’ll probably still end up in court.

Iron Man On The iPhone - It may have missed the movie, and the DVD release, but there’s now an Iron Man game on the iPhone. It definitely looks more fully developed for the wait, compared to rushed promotional products like Joker-fier that accompanied the Dark Knight’s release.

NanoPhone? - Site iDealsChina reports a new iPhone, which they’re claiming will be the oft-speculated “NanoPhone”, is no longer speculation, but cold, hard fact. They claim production on the things begins on the 20th, and they even provide ballpark figures for the initial run. They don’t name any sources, and I’m definitely not holding my breath on this one.

You Are Now Free To Pull My Finger - Thank goodness. My iPhone experience was significantly hampered when this app was pulled. Seriously, it’s a step in the right direction for the Draconian App Store rules of admission.

App Store Layout Changed - It may or may not be a response to Iconfactory developer Craig Hockenberry’s open letter, but it seems to make some improvements in the ways apps are organized, and which get highlighted. We’ll see if it actually affects buying habits in the longer term.

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Apple Wiiphone Around the Corner?
Smartphone industry insiders are seeing even more advanced sensors showing up in upcoming versions of the Apple iPhone, among other devices. Once such tech? Gyroscopic sensors, like those found in the motion sensing Wii remote from Nintendo. The tech, which uses Michroelectrochemical (MEMS) gyroscopes to measure rotational movement, helps enhance the motion-sensing abilities for the Nintendo controller. If implemented in a future version of the iPhone, it would allow similar attitudinal awareness functions in the smartphone. The advanced capabilities would allow the device to figure out its position in 3D space, instead of just its angle of relative tilt, as is currently the case.
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The Downward Trend of iPhone Pricing and What it Means for Developers
If you wait long enough, that app you have your eye on will eventually cost $0.99, or even nothing, depending on how patient you are. A lot of iPhone and iPod touch applications go through a distorted bell curve pricing process, whereby they start off relatively cheap, owing to a “promotional, introductory offer”, then become more expensive (”regular price”), and then dip again, either for a set period to climb the rankings, or forever to stimulate sales for a product that otherwise wasn’t selling. A big reason for the yo-yo cost of apps is the level of competition in the App Store. We saw the number of available applications cross the 10,000 milestone recently, up from only 500 at launch. That’s a 2,000 percent increase. With those numbers, readers can afford to be choosy.
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Firefox 3.1 Beta Supports Multi-Touch Gestures
The latest Firefox beta has enabled support for multi-touch gestures on the latest Apple laptops (including the MacBook Air, and late 2008 MacBook/Macbook Pro). Multi touch gestures already provide a whole new way to use Expose on your Mac, and it seems that Firefox is likely to beat Apple to integrate the functionality into a web browser.

Shortly after Apple’s latest notebook refresh in October, an experimental build of Firefox was released that allowed Mac users to utilize the functionality of the multi-touch trackpad in the browser. As of the latest Firefox beta (v3.2), these features have been integrated into the official version.
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Mac Games Arcade Open Beta Released
Mac Gamers may have gotten improved video performance with the latest MacBook line refresh, but their Windows counterparts still have the upper hand, with more titles available, and more options for distribution as well. Valve’s Steam, for instance, provides one-stop-shopping for all your gaming software needs. No such service exists on the Mac platform, but that may soon change, thanks to the recent release of the open beta of Mac Games Arcade.

At this stage in the development of Mac Games Arcade, it’s probably unfair to compare it to the much more mature Steam marketplace, which offers major titles from a number of established studios. MGA offers 272 titles as of this writing, but most, if not all of these, are casual titles from smaller developers. Pricing varies between $9.95 and $39.95, and games are organized by category, though there’s also a list of new releases and an overall list of every title available. Popular casual games are all here, including Monopoly, Scrabble, and Diner Dash and a number of its spin-offs.

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Daily Apple: Snap, Copy & Paste, TuneUps, 3D, and a Two-fer
TuneUp iTunes Plug-in Released for Mac - I keep my iTunes library obsessively organized. In fact, I’ll only keep full albums, so no hit singles for me. If you’re the same, but are tired of spending so much time getting everything perfect, TuneUp might help. It fills in metadata and cover art for tracks, and generally keeps things tidy.

3D Desktop Could Be the Future of Mac, According to Patents - I don’t know what the odds are of seeing any given patent actually end up being applied in the real world, but I hope this one works out. At the very least, it’s another step in the direction of a Minority Report-type interface.

Copy/Paste Between Safari and Mail Now Possible on iPhone - No app, so no opportunity for Apple to reject it. This fix uses two Java bookmarklets to allow you to copy and paste on the iPhone, but only between the two apps mentioned.

LittleSnapper Released - It’s one of the most anticipated screenshot utility releases I’ve ever seen, and it’s finally here. LittleSnapper is a screen capture and management utility aimed at professional designers, developers, and writers, and offers a range of annotation, editing, and sharing options.

Parallels BOGO Sale - No longer limited to shoes, you can now take advantage of a buy one, get one offer with Parallels, one of the most popular Mac virtualization apps. Late last month, VMware was offering Fusion at a steep discount, so this must be Parallels’ way of saying “Hey, us too!”. You may want to check out our comparison before dropping any cash.

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How Many OS 9 Die-Hards Are Out There?
How many Mac fans are still using OS 9? It’s a difficult statistic to track, or at least I’ve found it so. Hitslink’s November 2008 market share report shows pre-Intel Mac operating systems still represent a respectable (nearly three times the penetration of Linux) 2.35 percent of total OS usage (vs. 6.51 percent for MacIntel), but it’s not broken down between OS X and Mac OS Classic PPC systems.

Cult of Mac’s Giles Turnbull notes that way back in 2004 he posted a column entitled “OS9 - Blimey Some People Still Use It” for Mac DevCenter, but never imagined he’d be posting a similar piece four years later.

“But - blimey,” Turnbull wrote last week, “there are STILL some people out there using OS 9 and very happy with it too, thank you very much.”
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React: Test Your Reflexes On the iPhone/iPod Touch
I entertain no illusions when it comes to my reaction time. I won’t be catching any katana blades between my hands, that’s for sure. It’s my secret shame, since it means I’m not terribly good at video games, despite my professed love of them. There may be hope for me yet, thanks to DoApp’s new “skills-sharpening” game for the iPhone and iPod touch, appropriately titled React ($0.99).

React is a reflex and coordination game, using the unique multi-touch abilities of the iPhone and iPod touch to test your ability to complete a series of actions on your device. It’s actually kind of similar to Nintendo’s Wario Ware series, minus the crass, slightly vulgar main character. React has no characters, unless you count colorful shapes and contemporary, monochromatic design palettes as characters. In fact, it probably has more in common with Simon, although there is no pattern to memorize in this case.
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AT&T Begins Offering At-Home Activation for iPhones Bought Online
In yet another move designed with the intention of moving as many iPhones as possible this holiday season, AT&T began taking orders online for the iPhone 3G today. The option is open to anyone, and includes both the 8GB and 16GB models. A minimum two-year contract purchase is required when ordering online.

Once you select your model, you can configure you voice and data plans and any other options you want to include in your service bundle. You can also add AppleCare and other iPhone-specific accessories. You are, however, limited to one device per household, so you won’t be able to knock out your whole family shopping list in one go.

AT&T is also offering free overnight shipping for a limited time, in order to ensure that customers get their phones in time for Christmas. They’ve also posted a countdown of how many days are left before you’re no longer guaranteed pre-holidays arrival of your order. Once you receive your iPhone, you’ll have to connect it to iTunes in order to complete the activation process. New customers also have to provide their social security information so that AT&T can run a credit check.

Allowing online purchasing of the iPhone could extend the reach of the popular device to even more markets, and should save AT&T some infrastructure costs on the retail side of its operations. Despite the abundant availability of AT&T stores in urban areas, the new online option could appeal to those in more remote locations. You should note that using AT&T’s method, it’s still not possible to buy an iPhone for people outside your immediate family, since sensitive personal information is required in order to run the credit check.

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Optimize iPhone Photo Retrieval With Apple's Image Capture Utility
Despite the iPhone having a less-than-stellar camera, I wind up taking more pictures with it than any other device we own. This becomes a painful reality every time I connect my phone up to my MacBook Pro since I am reminded that I have enabled the launching of iPhoto whenever there are new pictures to retrieve. More often than not, these quick snaps do not make it to my iPhoto library (due to image quality) but that does not mean I do not want to do some non-mobile processing with them. Enter Apple’s Image Capture application (which can be found right within your Applications folder).

Connect your iPhone (and quit iPhoto, if it comes up) and fire up Image Capture. You will see that it recognizes your device and is ready to serve.
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No Excuses: Tracking Your Fitness On OS X
It should be obvious that the blogging elves at The Apple Blog care about the fitness of our readers, especially at this dessert-laden time of year. If you managed to stuff yourself as much as I did at Thanksgiving you may be in need of some extra assistance ensuring that the only thing that gets blown away in December is your budget. With that in mind, TAB takes a look at four OS X applications that can help you kick start a fitness program and track almost every detail of your workouts.

Meet the Contenders

Since the iPhone apps have some built-in advantages, I chose four programs that work with GPS devices, heart rate monitors or other accessories – such as the Nike + iPod kit – to even the playing field.

Garmin Training Center
Maker: Garmin
Price: Free
Compatibily: OS X 10.4+/Universal
Hardware Support: Garmin GPS

rubiTrack
Maker: toolsfactory
Price: $39.00
Compatibily: OS X 10.5+/Universal
Hardware Support: Garmin GPS, Nike+iPod, Amod GPS

Ascent
Maker: Montebello
Price: $40.00
Compatibily: OS X 10.4+/Universal
Hardware Support: Garmin GPS

TrailRunner
Maker: Berbie
Price: Free
Compatibily: OS X 10.5+/Universal
Hardware Support: Garmin GPS, Nike+iPod/Sportband, iPhone/iPod

NOTE: Real world workout data from Garmin and Nike+ devices were used in testing all four applications.
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Daily Apple: Gift Cards x 1,000,000, Netbooks Make Elbow Room, iPhone #3 Gadget, Multi-touch Firefox, Movies Disappear, Firmware Fixes
Apple Could Sell 1 Million Gift Cards - Analysts like big numbers. Shaw Wu, an analyst for Kaufmann Bros. likes six zeros, to be precise. He’s claiming that information he’s received from his network of Apple retail channel contacts puts the estimated sales of the iPhone gift cards Apple recently started offering at up to $1 million. Not a bad holiday haul.

Apple Loses Market Share… to Netbooks? - Bucking their usual trend of growing market share, Apple slipped to 4.1% from 4.6% for the same quarter last year. That’s in rankings that now include netbooks, which experienced a 160% growth. That’s called a hint, Apple.

iPhone Nets Time Gadget List Bronze - Only third on Time’s list this year, compared to first last year. What beat it? A 65-inch HDTV came in second, and a pico projecter came in first. The projector has a lot of potential applications for the future, but the TV? Just pure manly man awe factor behind that ranking.

Firefox Gets Multi-Touch - Kevin C. Tofel of jkOnTheRun was saved from unnecessary third-party utility installation when he found out that the recently released Firefox 3.1b2 for Macs incorporates multi-touch support. According to him, browsing speed was greatly improved using multi-touch controls.

That Movie You’re Putting Off Buying on iTunes May Not Be There Tomorrow - TV apparently has the right to kill movie distribution rights on iTunes. Basically, it comes down to release windows, which traditionally apply to broadcasters, not retailers, but since digital distribution is threatening TV’s livelihood, they’re counting them as competition.

Firmware Updates for Unibody MacBooks - That’s late-model 2008 MacBooks, MacBook Pros, and MacBook Airs. It’s actually an update bundle, and requires multiple installs. The EFI and SMC updates address a number of updates.

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MacFUSE 2.0 Released
Monday, Amit Singh and team announced the release of MacFUSE 2.0 at a Google Open Source Developers speakers series. MacFUSE 2.0, based on the FUSE (filesystem in userspace) project that is popular with the Linux crowd, is a major update to the framework that provides support for alternate filesystems like NTFS in Mac OS X. The visible change to MacFUSE 2.0 is the addition of a new preference pane in System Preferences to make it simpler for end users to update MacFUSE or remove it entirely.

The significant changes are under the hood and are of interest to developers that are looking to create support for new filesystems. MacFUSE 2.0 adds experimental support for Snow Leopard and 64-bit systems (Leopard only), allows for Dtrace support for performance tuning, new Xcode project templates to help devs get started, debugging hooks and new function calls. You can get the full details in the changelog.
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Random House Giving Away Books to Stanza Users
Stanza is easily the most popular book app available for the iPhone and iPod touch. Recently, it expanded its library even further, adding 40,000 new titles to its library, thanks to the acquisition of a license for eReader’s eBook format. Lexcycle’s Stanza now boasts over 100,000 book and magazine titles, and that number grows daily. Some are crediting the app with helping to turn the iPhone and iPod touch into formidable eBook readers, despite the relatively small screen. Lexcycle claims 500,000 Stanza users, downloading tens of thousands of books a day.
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Flickr Mobile Makeover

It was only two months ago that Flickr unveiled a beta version of their mobile site optimized for iPhone and iPod touch users, but now it’s official.

Compared to their previous mobile endeavor, this update of the site is nothing short of leaps and bounds ahead. Beyond a svelte new interface that makes browsing, not only, your and your contacts’ activity a breeze, it also puts Flickr’s much touted “interestingness” photos within easy reach.

However, undoubtedly the biggest boon to come with this update is the ability to play back videos — or “long photos” as Flickr so poignantly likes to refer to them as. (It should be noted, though, this only applies to videos uploaded since December 3. Videos on the site previous to that date will be updated for mobile playback in the coming months.) Without delving into the technical details, Flickr is able to do this by utilizing their parent company’s, Yahoo!, Video Platform. Via said platform, Flickr can serve video to the dizzying array of available handsets on the market that support it, and accommodate for their varying screen sizes and codec dependencies, including the iPhone/iPod touch.
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6 Ways to Trick Out Your Mac This Holiday Season

As you do your holiday decorating this year, don’t forget to trick out your Mac, too. Fortunately, it’s a lot easier than hauling out heavy decorations or hanging 40 miles of outdoor lights in sub-zero temperatures.

I am always amazed at the creative widgets people devise and create for the holidays, and this year is no exception. Have a look at some of the festive widgets, games, and goodies that commemorate this holiday season.
- My favorite this year is Snow in the Dashboard. It’s not a particularly useful widget, of course, since it doesn’t do anything but make light snow fall across your dashboard. Since I live in Florida, though, it’s as close to the white stuff as I’m likely to get this December.
- If you’re looking for computer-based games, there are plenty of fun ones to choose from that will get you in the holiday spirit. I could try a different one every day and still not be done in time for Christmas, but I gave a few of them a whirl and found Christmas Swap and Christmas Crisis are the best bets if you’re looking for a little mindless fun. The former tests your reflexes and keeps your brain sharp, while the latter is just a fun arcade-type game.
- Children all over the world play the Dreidel Game during Hanukkah. This year, treat your kids to a version that’s played on an iPhone or iPod touch. Same great game and same great fun as when played with a real dreidel, but this one has a 21st-centruy slant. Though the Dreidel Game won’t help you trick out your Mac, it’s still a fun little app that you won’t want to overlook.
- Want to know just how many shopping days you have left before you’re out of time and have to show up at the company party with a re-gifted fruitcake? Put this Christmas Countdown on your Dashboard as a gentle reminder, or for a quick answer to your kids’ constant question, “How long until Santa comes?”
- If you really don’t feel like hanging lights all over your house, just string them across your monitor instead. NightLights Screensaver can be customized with mini or novelty lights and even lets you choose whether to let them randomly blink or remain lit . For a really festive screensaver, try 3D Christmas or Christmas Village.
- Speaking of lights, there’s a really neat Kinara widget that lets users light seven virtual candles in honor of the Seven Principles of Kwanzaa. Though the widget is free to download, it’s creators request users consider a donation to the ECOLIFE Foundation.
Have you found other cool holiday downloads and apps for your Mac? Tell me about them in the comments.

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Regain Precious Hard Drive Space With Drive Genius
An unheralded new feature Apple quietly added to OS X 10.5 Leopard is the ability to create, expand, or shrink hard drive partitions without erasing the entire drive. Several third-party applications can repartition drives as well, but it is a function that had never previously been built into the Mac OS.

Provided there is open, unwritten space left on your hard drive, using Disk Utility you can add a new partition, remove a partition thereby merging two adjacent partitions, or shrink an existing partition.

You can, in most instances, also achieve more flexibility in resizing or creating new partitions by running a disk defragmentation/optimization using a third-party utility like AlSoft DiskWarrior or ProSoft’s Drive Genius, the latter of which also incorporates a full-featured disk reformatting function and many other drive maintenance, optimization, repair, and troubleshooting features.

I used Drive Genius to repartition the hard drive in my G3 iBook a few years back, needing more breathing space on the primary partition with introduction of OS 10.4 Tiger. The entire operation went smoothly, I encountered no problems, and the computer is still in daily use by my wife.

The latest Drive Genius version 2.1 has, among other enhancements, added DriveSlim, a feature that can free up hard drive space by identifying unnecessary files cluttering your hard drive and allowing you to mark them for deletion.

A Slim Plan Options menu lets you, by adjusting sliders and checking various options, fine-tune your data reduction and filter out specific duplicate or unnecessary files that may be bloating your hard drive, after which you may not need to repartition.

Incidentally, Drive Genius is currently offered till December 18 as part of the MacUpdate Holiday Bundle of 10 applications. The bundle has a retail value of $450, but is available for $49.99, or half the regular price of Drive Genius alone.

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Daily Apple: More Macros, Mous-iversary, Psystar, iPhone Advertising & OpenCL
Keyboard Maestro 3.5 Released - The Mac macro software gets a big update today, bringing in support for their new iPhone and iPod touch app, which allows you to execute macros remotely from your device. Combined with new iTunes control actions, it nicely supplements Apple’s own Remote app.

The Computer Mouse Approaches Middle Age - Our little human interface device grew up so fast! Where does the time go? Stanford researcher David Engelbart revealed his creation this day in 1968. It was a three-button device, which means Apple actually took two steps back with their original one-button design.

Psystar Saga Continues - The first Mac cloner (there’s now a second, in case you hadn’t heard) continues its legal battle with Apple. Today, Psystar dropped their counterclaim, which held that Apple was in violation of anti-trust laws. They’ve instead shifted their strategy slightly, saying that Apple is going beyond the bounds of their copyright by trying to shut down hardware that is merely compatible with their OS, which is what Psystar claims to be making.

Amobee Media Systems Optimizes Ads for iPhone and iPod Touch - Google isn’t the only one trying to get ads onto your iPhone. Amobee Media Systems is now providing a holistic solution for adding advertising support to apps. Thank goodness! I’m always forgetting what to buy.

OpenCL Goes Beyond Apple - An industry consortium ratifies the Open Computer Language 1.0, a 3D graphics and computer audio standard that originally began as an Apple proposal. Some consortium members include heavyweights like Electronic Arts, IBM, Intel, and many more.

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Stand Out From 13M Others With Infectious iPhone Art
Since the Zunes inception, for all its faults, one thing that it did that seemed worth emulating was its Originals line, which are devices etched with original artwork from an array of designers. There’s no doubt that, even before comparing it to the Zune, or even the iPod nanos for that matter, the iPhone doesn’t offer a lot in the way of expressing ones individuality.

Thankfully, Infectious (see disclosure at bottom) is happy to fill that lack of identity with its line of iPhone Art adhesive decorations. Featuring artwork from well known illustrators and graphic designers like David Lanham, Jeremy Prasatik (aka JP33), Emil Kozak, and MAD, among many more, Infectious currently offers 38 designs to adorn your iPhone with. Each comes with a full and mini sticker that covers the full back of phone (with a cut-out for the camera lens) and the bottom portion of the front, respectively; as well as an Infectious logo sticker for good measure.
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App Store's 300 Million Downloads is Remarkable No Matter How You Look at It
Click image enlarge

This past Friday, Apple advertised iPhone apps in the New York Times and also mentioned that there have been 300 million app downloads. While most people realize this is pretty amazing, there are some comments quickly rushing to pour water on the app store's fire…

How many of those 300 million were free apps?

Apparently this is supposed to matter since it would show that Apple isn't making a lot of money here. So what? It wasn't Apple's plan to make a lot of money on the app store. This should be obvious from the fact that they take only 30% of the cost of sold apps, and host free ones for nothing. That’s hardly a model designed to make a big profit. The app store is about content, and people using that content to make the device better for them.
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9 iPhone Puzzle Games to Keep You Entertained
Continuing with our round up of iPhone/iPod touch apps, here are 9 puzzle games (in no particular order) worth checking out. Each item on the list links to a full review with feature and pricing information.

Quordy
Find the most words, get the high score.

Smiles
Two games in one. Play the Drop mode for Bejeweled-like game play or the Zen mode for a Solitaire-esque game.

Spin
Rotate the object to match the silhouette.

Puzzloop Endless
Fend off a non-stop barrage of colored balls.

MetaSquares
Compete against the computer or another player in capturing the most squares.

Dizzy Bee
Use your touch device’s accelerometer to control Dizzy Bee and save its fruit friends.

Lumen
Use mirrors and colored filters to guide a laser beam through check points.

Imangi
It’s Scrabble meets the Rubick’s cube.

Amazing Sudoku
A flashy, stylized version of the cult game.

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Backblaze Online Backup Service

These days our lives revolve around our computers — for better or worse. We keep our finances there, photos, purchased music, and much much more. It seems like a no brainer that we should all be backing up our data regularly, but it still surprises me how often I hear from a friend that they’ve lost everything. I’ve written about the importance of backups before — illustrated by my own dead drive experience – so don’t write this off as something that can’t happen to you.

All you need to backup your computer is software, external storage space, and the will to set the two up. From my experience, the last of the three represents the greatest barrier to entry. Whether it be a lack of understanding or possibly a fear of how to setup the actual backup, and which files to choose for inclusion, I’m not sure — maybe both?

Well friends, I present you with Backblaze. For $5 per month (that’s the price of Starbucks for one day after all!) you have an internet based exclusion (that means you only choose what NOT to save) backup solution with unlimited storage space. That’s correct — there is no limit to the amount of data you backup with Backblaze. Ever. Your data is stored securely (via AES, military grade encryption) in the 365 Main datacenter, and can be further protected with your own private password. Versions are kept for 4 weeks in the event you overwrite something accidentally. And then when it is time to retain your backed up files, you have three options for doing so: Download a zip file, have DVDs burned of your data, or order a USB drive to be sent to you.
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Now That Rumors Have Subsided: Is a $99 iPhone Good or Bad?

Now that recent rumors of a $99 iPhone seem to have been settled — Wal-Mart will sell the 8GB model for $197 — we can get back to the broader discussion of just what an eventual $99 iPhone could mean to Apple.

I believe the answer to the question depends on just what a $99 iPhone is. Prior to the latest rumors, it was usually discussed as some sort of "iPhone nano." Maybe a flip phone, and generally acknowledged to be much more limited than the current iPhone. I’m sure these rumors will creep up again soon.
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Earn Money With Your iPhone 3G

My iPhone bleeds money. I buy apps, the bulk of which I never look at again. My monthly bill, in order to guarantee enough data available, is pretty expensive, especially when compared to what I was paying for earlier phones. And, to top it all of, I buy tons of accessories for my iPhone, spoiling it like a loving grandparent. Occasionally (not often, but occasionally), I find myself asking what my iPhone has ever done to pay me back? Yes, it’s a great tool, but I mean really pay me back, in cold, hard cash. Now, the folks at Navizon have come up with a way for you to get a little return on your investment.

Basically, Navizon adds to the basic location services of your iPhone. Your handset can determine your location using a combination of cell towers, Wi-Fi, and GPS, but using the included Maps application, you have no way of knowing which is active at any given time. Navizon displays your position (on Yahoo!, rather than Google Maps), but it also displays a little badge to let you know which method is being used to determine where you are. That way I know, for example, why the map was showing me as located three blocks North of where I actually am. The answer? My phone was only using cell tower data to find me. You can also take advantage of built-in buddy features to locate friends or family, if they’re using Navizon’s service. You can also configure alerts by logging on to the website to receive notifications by email or web when your buddies enter into specific areas you designate.
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Wal-Mart to Sell iPhones

News broke yesterday that Wal-Mart will indeed be selling Apple’s iPhone, most likely by the end of December. The source of the information is employee training materials, and employees of the U.S.-based retail giant themselves. Wal-Mart is still keeping mum about the news, having made no official statement as of yet.

Early speculation held that the 4GB iPhone would make a return, at a new, $99 price point, designed to attract frugal customers in increasingly uncertain economic times. Today’s reports, supported by a number of sources and documents, maintain that a $99 iPhone is unlikely, and that Wal-Mart will instead offer a $2 discount, selling the 8GB model for $197, including contract discount.

Analyst Andy Hargreaves of Pacific Crest Securities told Reuters that Apple, while unlikely to cut a deal that would affect its profit margins, is probably seeking distribution through Wal-Mart in order to access different market demographics. UBS analyst Maynard Um, on the other hand, thinks a Wal-Mart deal alone will not be enough to broaden the iPhone’s reach, and suggests it should instead be only a first step to even more distribution deals with large retailers.

Details remain unclear, and conflicting reports from various sources indicate that nothing is confirmed, besides the iPhone’s imminent arrival. The arrival date, for instance, is cited by Bloomberg as December 28, but by CNN Money as possibly sometime before Christmas. Likewise pricing and storage space options, with Boy Genius Reports still maintaining that the $99 4GB model is a possibility.

Apple has refused to comment on any rumors or speculation at this point.

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MacBook Air Acting Up, Just in Time for Holidays
The launch of Apple’s new unibody aluminum Macs hasn’t been the smoothest ride, for both the company and its loyal customers. There was disappointment over what didn’t (Firewire) and what did (HDCP) make it into the new machines. The innovative new trackpad design nearly underwhelmed thanks to a glitch that resulted in it failing to recognize clicks every so often. Finally, two graphics-related issues began cropping up in MacBooks and MacBook Pros, problems which Apple is currently investigating.

Click image to see detail

Apparently, the MacBook Air was tired of its bulkier cousins getting all the negative attention. Recent reports from users indicated Apple’s ultra-portable is also experiencing problems associated with graphics output. Machines are being returned to Apple because of “laid” displays, a problem in which faint, horizontal or slightly angled gray lines appear, spanning the entire width of the notebook’s screen. Luckily (or maybe unluckily, depending on your perspective), the lines are said to appear immediately after booting, so you’ll know right away if your machine’s affected. The photo to the right shows what to look for if you’re unsure about your own Air.
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Brothers In Arms for iPhone/iPod Touch
In the course of playing and reviewing a number of iPhone games, I realize I’ve come to expect, and even allow for, certain shortcomings. I expect lag in a graphics-intensive game. I expect buggy controls that feel less than intuitive. I expect omissions that are promised to be fulfilled in later updates. All of which is why Brothers in Arms: Hour of Heroes ($9.99) caught me off guard. The new shooter from the prolific gameloft (iDP) studio is a polished, pleasurable gaming experience that lacks a lot of the usual iPhone platform caveats users have unfortunately learned to live with.

The game belongs to the Brothers in Arms franchise, which began with Gearbox Software’s 2005 title Road to Hill 30. The Brothers in Arms series is set in WWII, and console and PC versions feature first-person shooter gameplay mechanics. Hour of Heroes, developed, by gameloft, who also brought the series to the Nintendo DS, is a third-person over-the-shoulder shooter and finally escapes the single-track, limited character control found in similar games like Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.
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Multitouch Trackpad vs. Touch Screen Computing
I have some friends (mac-using friends) who are gaga over some of the new commercials they’ve seen of touch screen Windows-capable machines — namely the HP TouchSmart PCs. On one level I understand — that stuff looks cool! But I quickly come back and think, realistically how useful is this? When I pointed this out to my lovely wife, her retort was along the lines of, “Don’t you still dream about having that computer from Minority Report?” Touche. But in the real world (as opposed to what Hollywood likes to portray) as computers and monitors exist now, is this really what we want? Appease me while I argue a skosh. (Feel free to get involved in the comments!)

I’m one of those, along with many I know, that prefer people to keep their fingers off my screen when pointing to or talking about something on my computer. I hate smears. Multiply this times n when a glossy screen is present — which of course is always now with the new MacBook lineup. (Has anyone else noticed that the glossy coating on the new MacBooks is even more of a magnet for smudges than the old?!)
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Setting Up Xcode & Beanstalk Hosted Subversion
If you are planning on getting started in developing for the Mac, one of the first things I recommend setting up is a version control system. Beanstalk is a hosted Subversion system, so you can access your code from anywhere you have an Internet connection, team up with partners across the world, and keep a safe copy of your code off site, just in case. It’s tempting to rely on Time Machine for the ability to roll back changes, but Subversion has some key differences that make it a clear winner in ease of use and features.

For one, you can host a Subversion repository anywhere, either locally on your own Mac, or on the Internet, or on your local private network. Second, Subversion is built to work with multiple users, and can handle conflicting commits to the repository. Finally, Subversion can integrated directly into Xcode, which is what we are going to look at here.
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Weekly App Store Roundup: Dec. 6, 2008
As we speed down the information superhighway, we’re left with a few moments to glance in to our rear-view mirror and see the week that was fade in the distance.

And what a week it has been, with TAB pointing out AT&T’s 12,000 redundancies and apparent defiance of the economic slump, iPhone devs finally getting the tools they need to promote their apps properly, Tapulous presenting their iPhone offering for the holiday season and our very own ultimate roundup of Twitter apps.

So now it’s time to slide our brains in to fifth gear and cruise through the weekend, and to aid your journey I’ve picked several of the latest apps especially for your iPhone.

This week I’m looking at The Spirit, Buddha Machine and iTie.

The Spirit (free)
Frank Miller, the creative mind behind gritty comic-noir Sin City, has directed a forthcoming movie called The Spirit. This app is a free promo for the movie, allowing you to take a photo of yourself and then view a short clip from the movie, starring you! Just like The Dark Knight: HaHaHa, this is gimmicky fun, when it works.
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