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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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Freestyle Vocabulary Learning With Keep Your Word

Keep Your Word, produced by Bamboo Apps is a tool for those learning a new language. It allows you to build your own dictionary as new words are discovered, classifying and grouping the terms exactly how you want to, while helping you learn a large vocabulary through various exercise modes.

Features

As someone who seems to lack the talent for learning new languages, I was interested to see how this app could help me to grasp the basics of a foreign tongue. The first thing to note is that Keep Your Word isn’t a tool to teach you a language from scratch. The application functions more as a learning aid as you learn a language elsewhere, allowing you to gradually categorize and build up a dictionary of vocabulary.

Far from being solely a database of words, you are able to create smart groups, add ‘tags’ to easily categorize sets of words and tell the application when you have successfully memorized a word. The main selling point is the collection of ‘exercise’ tools to assist in learning vocabulary. These consist of flash cards, quizzes and the ability to print word lists.

When first opening the application, I was a little disappointed to find a lack of pre-built dictionaries or word lists. The idea of needing to create an entire dictionary for yourself from scratch seemed daunting to say the least. Fortunately, Bamboo Apps have developed Words Parade in conjunction with Keep Your Word, allowing you to easily share and download pre-built dictionaries. At present, only a couple are available — Basic Mandarin and Cantonese — though I foresee more languages being added in the future.

If a comprehensive collection of different languages are gradually added, this has the potential to really take the application to a new level.
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Mac 101: Photo Booth Tips
When’s the last time you played with Photo Booth? I’m guessing you and your friends had some raucous laughs with it when you first got your Mac, and then haven’t done much with it since. Well I’m here to suggest you bring it out of mothballs and check out a few things that you may not have known before. (Oh, and if you have kids, let them at it and it’ll keep them busy for hours!)
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X-Plane Helicopter & Airliner for iPhone

Laminar Research has recently released two new versions of its X-Plane flight simulator for the iPhone and iPod touch; X-Plane Airliner and X-Plane Helicopter. Each can be purchased for $4.99 from the App Store — around half the price of the standard X-Plane game for iPhone.

X-Plane Background

X-Plane is an innovative application when compared to other flight simulators, as it uses a concept known as blade element theory. Rather than using lookup tables for determining the specific way an aircraft behaves, blade theory assigns independent values to every single element of an aircraft. This makes the software suitable for hardware such as the iPhone as it scales easily. Each download clocks in at under 10MB (incredibly small for a flight simulator).

X-Plane is capable of modeling complex aircraft designs easily, including helicopters, rockets, the Harrier Jump Jet, and the NASA Space Shuttle. There are three versions available for iPhone at present; the standard X-Plane release, X-Plane Airliner, and X-Plane Helicopter. This review will be focusing on the latter two versions which joined the line up in the last couple of days.
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Daily Apple - Update Updates, FFXIII: Awkward Controls, Copywrong, Check Means Yes, & The Vatican
Glitchy 10.5.6 Update Gets Improved - A week after its initial release, Apple has updated their, ahem, update, making it significantly less glitchy. People were experiencing problems with Bluetooth and Mail.app, among others. I jumped the gun, and I haven’t had problems yet, but I don’t generally use Bluetooth, so who knows if I’m fine or just blissfully ignorant.

Square-Enix Brings Game to iPhone/iPod Touch, Forget It Has Touch Controls - Maybe you noticed the new Square-Enix game, Final Fantasy: Crystal Defenders, now available in the App Store. Maybe you, like me, looked at the screenshots and thought “What the heck is that?”. That, apparently, is your on screen joystick, which you use to control the cursor, which controls the characters.

Psystar Lawyers: Maybe OS X Doesn’t Even Exist! - Not quite there yet, but they are claiming Apple didn’t properly copyright the operating system, making it fair game for anyone to use it on any machine. It’s only a matter of time before they claim none of us ever really existed at all.

MobileMe Online Apps Updated - Some much needed updates arrived for the online portion of MobileMe today. One of the most significant updates? the “Keep me logged in for 2 weeks” checkbox now actually does something.

Vatican Backs iPhone App - Yes, iBreviary has received the official Vatican seal of approval. It’s a $0.99 app designed by a Reverend and a web designer that allows users to load a number of different prayers and prayer books. No word yet on Pull My Finger’s still pending application for Papal support.

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12seconds.tv Interview

12seconds.tv is a boot-strapped startup that has been a labor of love for the three founders, Sol Lipman, Jacob Knobel, and David Beach. A host of other characters have helped along the way, influenced by promises of burritos, but the small group hasn’t taken any outside money.

The project was conceived in January, launched in July, and now has an iPhone app ready just in time for the holidays. They got some attention from a write-up on TechCrunch in July and have built a loyal and passionate community of over 10,000 users.

I had a chance to talk briefly with Sol Lipman the other day about the launch of 12seconds for the iPhone and ask about the path they took to get to this moment. It’s clear that 12seconds.tv was built with a lot of passion from both the founders, their friends and colleagues that helped out, and the growing community of users.
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SimCity: Create a Bustling Metropolis on Your iPhone

EA dropped SimCity ($9.99) for the iPhone recently, and I actually almost missed it. I was still buzzing over Hero of Sparta and I Love Katamari, both of which are also recent releases.

Of course, I had to put everything on hold and take a crack at SimCity, since the PC versions of the game had occupied so many of my youthful hours. Plus, I was pleased with Spore Origins, so EA had already begun to earn my trust on the iPhone platform. I really hoped they wouldn’t throw that relationship out the door with as precious a title as SimCity.
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Don't Expect Mass Enterprise iPhone Adoption in 2009
The iPhone has a lot of potential for enterprise use. It’s a powerful device, and it supports Exchange synchronization, and more and more, businesses are integrating Apple computers into their current IT loadout. Still, BlackBerry dominates the business market. Especially in more traditional corporate climates, the impetus required for a shift to Apple’s device isn’t there. At an organization I recently left, they were just undertaking BlackBerry adoption, and cautiously at that. Suggesting an iPhone solution would’ve been greeted by blank stares. Some involved in approving purchasing decisions wouldn’t even have known what one was. Yes, it is possible to be that insulated.

I still used my iPhone for work purposes, but not in a way that was fully integrated or supported by our in-house IT. It’s the type of thing that Forrester Research’s Michele Pelino sees as becoming more prevalent as we move in to 2009. Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) like the one I mention, according to Pelino, will see more of the iPhone, since their IT infrastructure is less strict, and open to a hodge podge of solutions supplemented by employees’ own equipment. Because of this, she sees iPhone adoption climbing to as much as 10 percent among SMBs.
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VirtualBox 2.1 Adds Support for Hardware Virtualization On OS X
Christmas has come early for users of VirtualBox, a free and open source virtualization solution from Sun Microsystems. Version 2.1 is a huge upgrade to the product as it includes VT-x and AMD-V hardware virtualization support on OS X and full VMDK/VHD support — including snapshots — putting it on par (at least from a hardware perspective) with Parallels and VMware.

This release also includes support for 64-bit guests on 32-bit host operating systems and experimental 3D acceleration. Networking performance has been boosted and there have been many smaller bug-fixes and enhancements.

VirtualBox has support for a wide range of guest operating systems and there is an extensive number of live, pre-built images (VDIs) that are ready to run.

If you only have occasional need to run Windows, Linux or alternative operating systems but do not want to pay for a full VMware or Parallels license, VirtualBox is a great alternative.

Be sure to check out their Mac-specific forums if you run into any quirks or difficulties. I’ve found the community to be very helpful and responsive and run a few flavors of Linux in VDIs primarily to be able to take them anywhere (VirtualBox is cross-platform). While it does not have as extensive of an integration between the guest and host systems and there is no support for OS X virtualization yet, VirtualBox is a solid product with a promising future.

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Scroll Different — Mouse Engineering Moves Up Top
Mouse technology has advanced a lot over the past two decades. The Apple Lisa-derived mouse with its DE-9 connector and thumb screws that attached it securely to my first Mac, a 1988 Mac Plus, was a pretty crude piece of engineering, with an analog ball of course, and a noisy, long-travel, somewhat stiff single button. Everything that came after that was an improvement.

However, most engineering effort with computer mice has been directed toward I/O interface (ADB, USB) and tracking sensor (optical, laser) advances and more recently wireless technologies (RF, Bluetooth), as well as improved ergonomics. Multi-button mice with scroll wheels became the standard configuration (although not with Apple mice) in the mid-’90s, popularized by Microsoft’s IntelliMouse Explorer, but with a few exceptions like the minuscule trackball on Apple’s 2005 Mighty Mouse, scrolling hardware technology didn’t change much between 1996 and 2006 when Logitech unveiled its MicroGear Precision Scroll Wheel.
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Daily Apple: Flash, Code-Fueled Rumors, Netbook Guide, Fonts, & Book-Banning
Flash Comes to (Jailbroken) iPhones (Sometimes) - Not, probably, what most people are looking for in terms of Flash on the iPhone, but if you’ve already jailbroken, it might be worth a look. Apparently buggy, but provides more Flash than the current, non-jailbroken iPhone does, that much is certain.

iMac, Mac Mini Rumors Get a Little More Backing - This recently unearthed evidence is probably a heck of a lot more dependable than unnamed sources. It comes from code strings from the version of OS X currently running on new Macbooks, and it refers to iMac9, 1 and Macmini3, 1. Current models are referred to as iMac8, 1 and Macmini2, 1. Apparently they’ll use the same Nvidia chipsets as the unibody Macbooks.

Brew Your Own Apple Netbook - In case you don’t believe the hype that we may see a netbook at Macworld, and/or you’re just tired of waiting, 9to5Mac posted this handy compatibility guide. Not that we advise this sort of funny business, but if that’s how you roll, hey, that’s how you roll.

Better Font Management - I’m not a huge fan of Apple’s own native Font Book application. Yes, it’s far better than the Windows control panel, but it could be better. Better like Fontcase. The program is now in a limited beta, but you can get access by signing up for the developer’s newsletter. Not too steep a price.

Apple Bans Book - Just when it looked like they were lightening up, what with all the farting you can now emulate via your iPhone, they go and ban a book. The reason for the book’s rejection was “objectionable content”, since it contained an f-bomb. The book is a detective thriller written by CNET reviewer David Carnoy called “Knife Music”. Yes, that is really what it’s called.

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12seconds.tv Brings Video Recording to the iPhone…Sort Of

12seconds.tv has just launched a new iPhone app ($0.99) in the App Store that allows you to output video files from your iPhone and share them with your friends on the web. It’s just not the video that you had in mind. This clever little app lets you take three photos, or pick them from your photo library, and then add a voice note over a nicely animated slideshow, complete with Ken Burns effects.

The name of the service comes from the maximum length of any video, just 12 seconds, no more (and no less either, at least from the iPhone app). The videos are uploaded to the 12seconds.tv community site where you and your friends can view them, link to them, or embed them in a web page.

The 12seconds iPhone app has a very different feel from staring into a webcam. The ability to select the photos and have some control over the composition of the video before recording the audio creates some distance between the author and the video. The result is something that still feels intimate and personal, but has a stronger sense of telling a story, even in 12 seconds, than you might get from talking into the camera.
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'Twas The Night Before Macworld
'Twas the night before Macworld, when all through the blogs
Every pundit was asking "Where is Steve Jobs?"
His stockings were hung at Mascone with care,
But it seems his last keynote was for MacBook Air.

The attendees were not yet settled into bed;
All concerned that we only get Schiller instead.
Will there be dazzling products? What can we expect?
And will somebody get Phil a black turtleneck?
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iTunes Tip: Remembering to Rate Your iTunes Music

My life is busy (and yes, if you’re wondering, it is all about me), and frequently I tend to rip or download music without taking the time to apply ratings to it. Since ratings are one of the best methods for determining the usefulness of your playlists, neglecting to add that information to your tracks can really handicap the power iTunes offers.

Some pondering of the issue (and a putrid burning smell) led me to come up with a Do It Yourself kind of solution that everyone can institute without spending anything more than a little time. If this sounds like something useful to you, feel free to follow along at home.
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DIY Magi: Great (and Free!) Gift Pack for New Mac Owners

With both shopping days and budgets running short, you may be wondering what to get your friends and family members who have either just purchased or will be receiving a new Mac.

With 1-8GB USB flash drives having a street price of ~$6-$15.00 and a plethora of highly useful free software for the Mac ripe for the picking, here is a guide to putting together a relatively inexpensive, yet most invaluable gift that will definitely keep on giving. If you have suggestions for items to include, post your ideas in the comments (it has to be free, remember!).

While TAB cannot distribute a pre-loaded DMG with these items (many have license “click throughs” before downloading and/or mounting), we can get you started building your present with this handy pre-built DMG file (ZIP), complete with custom disk image, background image and folder icons, all pre-layed out for you.
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2008 Best App Ever Awards: Your Vote Counts!

iPhone news and review site 148apps.com has announced the launch of Best App Ever, a new site which allows you to nominate your favorite apps and games in any one of thirty categories.
- Most Innovative App - The most innovative app on the iPhone OS platform
- Most Useful App - The app you just can’t live without
- Best Free or Ad Supported App - The best free or ad-supported application - must currently be free in the US App Store
- Best 99 Cent App - The ‘I can’t believe this only cost $.99′ app - must currently cost $0.99 in the US App Store
- Best iPhone WOW App - The app makes your friends jealous (and want to buy an iPhone)
- Best Productivity Enhancer - The app that helps you get it done in half the time
- Best Productivity Killer - The app that prevents you from getting it done
- Best Feel Like A Local App - The app that helps the traveler find the local hot spots
- Best Outdoor Use App - The app that enhances travel, outdoor exploration or transit use
- Best Musical Instrument App - The app that turns the iPhone into a musical instrument, and you into a rock star
- Best Social Networking App - The app that keeps you connected on the road
- Best Photography App - The app that turns iPhone photography into masterpieces
- Best Kid Distraction App - The app that keeps your kids happy (for a minute)
- Most Creative Use of iPhone Hardware - The app that does things with the iPhone hardware that the Apple would never have dreamed of
- Best Use of Location Services - The app that uses the core location services in new and innovative ways
- Most Original User Interface - The app that redefines interface design
- Best User Interface - The app with the best user interface in an application or game
- Most Innovative Game - The game that has shown the greatest innovation on the platform
- Best Original Game - The best game that is original on the iPhone platform
- Best Game Port - The best game adapted from another platform or system
- Best Casual Game - The game that is easy to pick up and play while you wait for your coffee to brew
- Best Long-Play Game - The game that sucks you and won’t let you go until your battery dies
- Best Free or Ad Supported Game - The best free or ad-supported game - must currently be free in the US App Store
- Best 99 Cent Game - The ‘I can’t believe this only cost $.99′ app - must currently cost $0.99 in the US App Store
- Best Game Graphics - The game with the killer graphics
- Best Game Controls - The game with the best use of the iPhone hardware for a game controller
- Best Arcade Game - The game that rocks the arcade or action genre
- Best Puzzle Game - The game that makes puzzles exciting again
- Best Traditional Game - The game that celebrates tradition — card, board, casino, etc.
- Best Racing Game - The game that gets your adrenaline pumping
- Best Kids Game - The game or educational app you want your kid to play
- Best Strategy Game - The game that keeps you one step ahead
- Best Word Game - The game that lets you exercise your vocabulary
You can submit your nominations at the Best App Ever main site by clicking on the category and entering the information for the application. On December 31 the nominees for all categories will be posted and polls will open. The winners will be announced on January 7, 2009 at Macworld Expo.

This is a great opportunity to give your favorite iPhone developers a chance at some additional recognition for a job well done.

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Mac Giving Tree From MacHeist
It's the holiday season, the season of giving, and the people behind MacHeist are giving away a bundle of free applications through the Mac Giving Tree. It’s simply a case of signing up and returning on Christmas Day to receive the promotional codes and ‘unwrap’ your presents.

Gifts currently offered through the deal are Synergy and Enigmo 2, with two more to be announced before Christmas Day. An additional two applications are on offer, available if you refer people to join the giveaway.

It’s difficult to find any reason not to take advantage of a free software giveaway, so get yourself over to the site or follow MacHeist on Twitter for the latest updates.

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Brain on the Fritz? Give it a Boost With the Speed Brain iPhone Game
The folks over at Lumosity are serious about the brain. Some of the leading neuroscientists in the world have come together to create a brain fitness program to improve your brain’s health and performance. Although the full Lumosity brain training program involves many other online games and costs $6.60 to $9.95 per month, their new Speed Brain iPhone app costs only $0.99 and will help keep your brain in tip-top shape!

The concept is simple: you’re shown a series of pictures and asked if each one matches the one before it. If you get it right, your score goes up. If you get it wrong, your iPhone or iPod touch vibrates to let you know. If you can answer fast enough you can earn bonus points for speed. And when you’re done, you will have hopefully flexed your brain enough to improve your processing speed and reaction time. My first time through I scored a pathetic 840, but after getting a handle of the concept I was able to chalk up a 5,190 on my second try.
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New AIM for Mac & AOL Desktop for Mac
Only two months after going into beta, AOL has released AIM for Mac 1.0. Unfortunately, not a whole lot has been changed since our review of the beta. There is still no option for video or audio chats, and beyond the addition of AIM Expressions (a library of Buddy sounds, wallpaper and animated Buddy Icons), it’s really no different than iChat. With the more advanced option of Adium for those who find iChat lacking and iChat being built right into OS X, it’s hard to see where AOL is positioning this app.

Not to be left out, AOL also updated the native client for their portal, AOL Desktop for Mac, to version 1.5. This update adds a new Parental Controls Assistant that “works with Mac OS X to turn off Internet browsers and other applications and deliver age-appropriate content via the AOL Desktop for Mac browser.” This, however, is a bit more redundancy on AOL’s part as OS X has its own — and much more robust, I might add – parental controls built-in.

While it’s good to have options, I can’t help but feel that AOL’s Mac offerings are way too little way too late and I think the appeal only lies within those who have a bit of nostalgia for their dial-up days. If you, however, do decide to venture the “official” route and pick up AIM for Mac, note that to disable its annoying habit of opening the “AIM Dashboard” in your browser every time you sign-on, un-check the “Show AIM start page when I sign in” option under the “General” tabs in settings.

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Weekly App Store Roundup: Dec. 20, 2008
According to the App Store, the holiday season has begun proper, with a deluge of Christmas-themed goodies up for grabs. However, that hasn’t hindered happenings in the greater world of Apple this week.

In a disappointing but somewhat expected turn of events, was Apple’s official announcement of their final attendance at next year’s Macworld. Next up, Orange and Apple’s iPhone exclusivity deal was ruled unfair by a French watchdog. And, as if to counteract the apparent gloom of their Macworld anti-news and jurisprudential japes over in France, the folks at Cupertino also released a fresh pair of very special seasonal Get a Mac ads.

Over at the App Store, things are looking somewhat rosier, as I’ve hand-picked a charming selection of new releases from the past week.

This week I’m looking at i Love Katamari, QuickPic, 3banana and Mint.com.
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Daily Apple: Wal-Mart, Crime Fighting Clouds, Lots of Gas, 3D Investments, & Snow Leopard
iPhone Confirmed For Sale at Wal-Mart on Dec. 28th - It was the rumored date, and now it’s the confirmed date. Wal-Mart will officially begin selling Apple’s iPhone in their stores across the U.S. on December 28. The confirmation comes via Bloomberg, who called multiple retail locations to ask about the start date.

The Cloud Fights Crime - One lucky iPhone user was able to track down the vile criminal who stole his Apple handset. The thief, unaware of MobileMe syncing, was adding his own contact information to the address book, leading the original owner to the culprit via his friends.

14 Fart Apps. One Day. - How many flatulence applications can you approve in one day? 14, apparently. As with the landscape email bottleneck before it, this is clearly an example of a decision made at Apple HQ that yes, Pull My Finger was acceptable, as was anything else along those lines. Those stinky, hilarious lines.

Apple Invests in Imagination - Imagination Technologies, that is. Apple is a licensee of their trademarked PowerVR technology, which is behind the 3D chipset for the iPhone and iPod touch.

More, Better Snow Leopard at Macworld - Apple Insider is reporting that Steve Schiller will use a portion of the keynote at the upcoming Macworld conference to show off an improved version of Snow Leopard, the newest installment of Mac’s OS X. The source of the information is anonymous sources cited by UK’s Guardian. Not the most solid ground, but then again, showing off a refined version of an OS everyone knows is in active development wouldn’t exactly be an earth-shattering move.

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Is a 24″ Cinema Display For Your MacBook Worth the Money?
Apple’s new notebook-oriented 24-inch LED Cinema Display is certainly a glorious piece of equipment. If you’re not up to speed, this 24-inch LED-backlit 1920 x 1200 pixel resolution glossy-finish widescreen unit includes a built-in iSight video camera, mic and speakers in an elegant, thin aluminum and glass enclosure stylistically consonant with the new unibody MacBooks and the aluminum iMac. Designed specifically for use with the unibodies, the LED Cinema Display also includes an integrated MagSafe AC power adapter and battery charger, plus three self-powered USB 2.0 ports and the new Mini DisplayPort allowing unibody MacBook users to quickly connect and power their notebooks and favorite peripherals.

The 24″ Cinema Display is mounted on an aluminum stand with an adjustable hinge that makes tilting the display easy and convenient. The downside? This puppy has a suggested retail price of $899. Ouch! If you can afford that comfortably, more power to you, but I think most of us will swallow hard before coughing up 900 bucks for a monitor — even a super-monitor like the 24″ Cinema Display.
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Google Calendar Sync: We Have Choices
A little while ago, Google released a free iCal-to-Google Calendar sync tool called Calabaration. I don’t believe that Calabaration works very well, given how it generates a new calendar group within iCal and has limitations on how the Google Calendar can then sync to MobileMe. So, I reached out to BusyMac, the makers of BusySync, and Spanning Sync, makers of the Spanning Sync application, to see if they wouldn’t mind me reviewing their products. Both companies happily agreed. Here is what I learned…

Commonalities

Each one:
- Installs as a preference pane in the System Preferences.
- Is very easy to configure.
- Has fantastic support. Also, hats off to both developers for answering so many of my questions and for helping me to diagnose some key problems with sync services.
- Doesn’t appear to have any tangible impact on system performance.
- Works with MobileMe, enabling you to view/edit your Google Calendar within iCal, on the MobileMe web site and via an iPhone.
- Has excellent instructional videos, tutorials and documentation.
- Let’s you perform a reset of the application so that you can start over with clean settings.
- Has exceptional logging so that if you do come across a problem, it is easy for the developer to help resolve it.
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Where To iPhone App Acquired by FutureTap

Many of you will be familiar with the iPhone application Where To which provides a quick way to find points of interest around you (whether you’re looking for food, places to shop, fun things to do or a whole range of other options). The application has been available through the App Store since day one, and generated significant success on account of the intuitive user interface and simple execution.

Recent months saw the developers of the application, Tap Tap Tap, struggle with personal problems and reach a decision to sell their flagship application to a new developer. The new owner has recently been announced as Ortwin Gentz, the founder of a new iPhone software company called FutureTap, who purchased Where To in a transaction worth $70,000.

Ortwin has worked previously as the CTO of Equinux, a company famous for their development of Mac applications such as iSale — a two-times Apple Design Award winner. FutureTap today commenced operations by relaunching Where To in the iPhone App Store.
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Connect360 or Rivet for Xbox 360 Media Sharing?

I use my Mac for a fair number of things, and one of those is sharing media with my Xbox 360.

Ever since I got my Xbox 360 a few years ago I wanted the feature of streaming media to the machine, one of the rare instances when I was left wishing for a Windows PC. Soon after Connect360 saved me by offering exactly what I needed and expected.

Connect360 gives you the ability to stream all of your music, movies, and photos from your Mac to your Xbox 360 over a wired or wireless connection. Share your iTunes playlists, WMV+WMA, H.264 and MPEG4 video files, and your entire iPhoto library. However Connect360 is not the only option when it comes to sharing media between the Mac and Xbox 360. Rivet is a new contender in the ring offering many of the same features as Connect360, and a few extras.
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The State of App Store Reviews
While nothing short of a fantastic delivery vehicle for all things iPhone Application, the App Store still has had its share of nuisances. (Even Apple doesn’t nail everything right out of the gate.) But with the unparalleled popularity of the iPhone and the ability to pair it with 3rd party applications, growth is a necessity, and the App Store has already evolved in a very short period of time.

The reviewing process was flawed from the get go. Initially Apple had the idiotic notion that people who had never purchased or used an application should be able give it a review and star rating. Seriously, how could that work out well? The result was people who had no first hand knowledge of a [paid] application or game leaving scathing reviews because they didn’t like the price point. Apple has since fixed this, checking the ability to review an app against the user’s purchase history.
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Tales From the Command Line: textutil
I really enjoy the overall experience reading books and articles on my Sony PRS-500 eBook reader, but dislike having to fire up Boot Camp or VMware into Windows in order to purchase books from the Sony eBook Store, especially when there are thousands of books in the public domain and tons of blog and article content on the internets for free.

The problem lies with getting this information onto said device. to make my life easier, I use a utility that first appeared in OS X 10.4 called textutil. As you will see, the utility of this small tool goes far beyond formatting content for eBook readers. As always, fire up Terminal.app and have it ready to roll as we delve once again down to the command line.
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I Came, I Saw, I Played Word Flow

I’m of the opinion that word-based puzzle games are where it’s at for the iPhone. Sure, the shooters and other touch games for the platform are cool, but I get longevity from the dynamic nature of word based challenges. So when the opportunity came to play with Word Flow from 3V Games, I jumped at it.

3V Games represents the long-time-coming desire of 3 long time mobile game developers. Having made their way in the mobile gaming realm for one of the big mobile industry players, Vinni, Viddi, and Vicci (that’s Grandpa, Uncle, and Aunt, respectively) grabbed ahold of the chance to do their own thing, based on the iPhone platform. I think it’s safe to assume that they’re hoping their extensive knowledge and experience in this realm will help them to knock it out of the park when combined with the great features the iPhone has to offer for game interaction.

Their first offering to come from 3V Games is called Word Flow ($0.99), and challenges you to make words out of the jumble of letter tiles presented on the game board. Unlike Quordy, Word Flow requires you to move the letter tiles vertically and horizontally to form your words on a linear basis (this rigid departure from the likes of Quordy or Wurdle proved a bit of an obstacle for my pint sized noggin). The concept is simple yet challenging, offering the typical ‘power-up’ scoring tiles, and larger scores for longer words. Game options are light, only allowing you to choose from 1, 3, and 10 minute game lengths.
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Location Based Job Searching With JobCompass

JobCompass is a new application on the iPhone that allows you to search through millions of jobs, locating and plotting them on a map in relation to your current position. It pulls vacancy information in real time, so new listings appear on a regular basis.

The idea for JobCompass was born when Titus Blair, the developer of the application, discovered that many of his friends and associates were being laid off. He explains that:

Current website solutions are not ideal since they do not pinpoint your location to provide you with job listings in relation to where you are at the moment. I was also traveling regularly and thought it would be interesting to see what jobs were available in my field in the cities and places I was visiting.

After pinpointing your location, JobCompass allows you to search for jobs by keyword, specifying the range from your current location which interests you (5, 10, 25, 50 or 100 mile radius). After finding a position which you seem well suited for, it’s simple to send an email to yourself with a link to the job description or, for those with quick fingers and enough patience, to open the listing in Safari and apply for the job straight away.
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Daily Apple: Snake, Paris, Keynote Concerns, & Business Triggers
Metal Gear Confirmed for iPhone - Snake’s going to be stealthy on your iPhone or iPod touch in the near future, thanks to Konami. They’re also planning on releasing Silent Hill and Dance Dance Revolution games. I want Grey Fox in the Metal Gear game. That’s an order.

Apple Expo Paris Nixed - Yesterday, Apple was announcing its last year at Macworld. Today, there’s more bad news for Apple convention goers, as Apple Expo Paris announced that the trade show will not happen in 2009. C’est la vie!

Jobs Won’t Present Keynote, Health Concerns Crop Up Yet Again - Steve won’t be taking part in the Expo this year at all, with the honor of the keynote going instead to Apple SVP Steve Schiller. Some of the speculation is that he’s staying away for health reasons, adding another link in the seemingly endless chain of rumors about his supposed illness.

Dow Jones Releases Sales Trigger iPhone App - If you’re the business type, as more and more iPhone users are, this app might be useful. It provides up-to-the-minute information on important changes at listed companies, like entering and exiting management personnel, mergers, etc.

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Apple and Orange Lose Their Sweetheart Deal
A French watchdog agency has decided that the exclusive deal between Apple and France Telecom’s Orange is not fair and must be suspended. The suspension of the deal is set to take place no later than Thursday of this week. The reason for the short time frame for implementation is to give a chance to Orange rivals SFR and Bouygues Telecom to capitalize on holiday iPhone sales. An SFR spokesman said they were planning to begin selling the iPhone within a few hours of the decision, if Apple is cooperative.

Orange is not quietly accepting the ruling, and instead will be filing an appeal, on the grounds that exclusivity deals stand in Britain, Germany, and Spain, where the telecom industries are similar to France’s own. Orange’s deal with Apple covered a five year term, the same as AT&T’s in the U.S. The appeal process could take up to 12 months, and in the meantime, if Apple or Orange defy the councel’s ruling, they can be penalized with stiff fines.

The decision is the result of a September 18 complaint by Buoygues Telecom, which is France’s third largest cellular service provider. If it stands, it could influence other exclusivity deals between carriers and Apple, although probably much more so in Europe, where business and telecommunication regulations are similar between countries. It’s not likely that the decision will influence AT&T’s deal in the U.S., since competition regulations are not nearly as strict here as they are in Europe.

The current suspension is a temporary measure while the competition counsel investigates the matter more fully. It’s possible that fines could still be issued if Apple and France Telecom are found to be in serious violation of competition regulations.

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Mac Clones: Where Does Apple Draw the Line?

With all the hoopla surrounding Psystar these days, a few other companies have jumped on board the Mac clone bandwagon. In some cases they're using somewhat, shall we say, unique, methods. Still, the intent is clear: skirt Apple's EULA and sell a solution that allows Mac OS X to run on generic PC hardware. In other words, swipe Apple's IP.

Wired has a piece that discusses the cloning and how Apple may be powerless to stop it.

What bothers me most about cloning is the sheer hutzpah of those doing it. For example:

“We certainly don’t want to get into a legal battle that’s over a couple thousand dollars,” an EFIX USA spokesman said. “Potentially Apple could have a legal issue there. They may not have a legal issue, but with all the money they have they might try to make one.”

Apple could have a legal issue? Oh please.
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14 Ho Ho Holiday iPhone Apps
I’m a holiday junkie. I watch all the Christmas specials (including a copy of PeeWee’ Christmas Special which I have on VHS. It’s the only reason I still have a VCR), I make hot chocolate, I bake, I go absolutely insane. My insanity now extends to my iPhone, which has recently experienced a rash of holiday apps. Here’s a list of fourteen that I feel stand out somewhat from the growing crowd. They go well with eggnog and gingerbread.

North Pole ($2.99)

I’m not really sure why this app is named North Pole. I was expecting a compass type app, but in fact, this one give you Christmas-themed bobble heads. You can choose from Rudolph, Frosty, or Santa Claus, and the motion sensitive head-shifting action is accompanied by popular Christmas tracks, which you can select in the app’s settings screen.

Holiday Mistletoe (Free)

Any excuse to steal some holiday smooches. There’s about a thousand mistletoe apps out there (Don’t believe me? Search for yourself), but this one has the benefit of being free. It also features motion sensitive animation that simulates 3D space, and real jingling sounds, so your kissee will hear you coming and have a chance to escape.
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Targus High-Speed Cable a Solution for FireWire-less File Transfer
Apple’s decision to not equip the new unibody MacBook with a FireWire port has been as popular as the proverbial skunk at a garden party, at least with seasoned Mac users. Aside from the MacBook Air, which suffers from manifold deficiencies in the I/O department, the last Apple portable that shipped without FireWire was the Revision B clamshell iBook in 2000. We’ve kinda gotten used to having it.

So, are you, like many, taken with the new MacBook (and there are plenty of reasons to be), but wondering how you could get along without FireWire? A new product from Targus could be your solution.

That is if your main concern about going FireWire-less is how to handle fast, computer-to-computer file transfers. The Targus USB 2.0 High-Speed File Transfer Cable for Mac can’t help you with connecting to your FireWire video camera or scanner, but it’s a surprisingly slick and satisfactory substitute for the file transfer aspect of FireWire Target Disk Mode, in some respects even more convenient.
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Daily Apple: Final Christmas, Artificial Greening, Mini Buzz, Hodgmanimation, & Sales Slump
Get Your Older Mac Looking Greener - The preference pane icon on the most recently released Macs for the Energy Saver functions is a flourescent bulb, not the power-hungry incandescent one those of us with older machines are stuck with. Check out this handy little tutorial to figure out how to replace your own boring old icon with the new one.

Mac Mini Updates Coming? - The rumor mills are churning out lots of buzz around this one. The source, from what I can tell, is a lone Apple corporate employee, who is keeping his identity secret in order to prevent a vicious firing. I’m really hoping this one turns out to be true.

New Holiday Get a Mac Ads Debut - Done in that classic Rankin/Bass style, the new ads carry on the tradition begun in 2007 of having animated versions of John Hodgman and Justin Long push Apple goods. I’ve only seen the one so far, and it was far more cutesy/heartwarming than hilarious, as is appropriate for the holidays.

Apple Sales Slide - Those ever buoyant Apple sales numbers sunk a little in November, compared to the same period last year. It was bound to happen, with the consumer electronics market in a general slump. They’re still doing far better than most.

Apple Announces Last Year of Christmas - Yep, they cancelled it. It just wasn’t really worth their time, being such a small part of their overall marketing strategy, apparently. Too bad, I’d grown rather fond of the Jobs/Claus annual shared Christmas keynote. There’s always next yea.. oh wait, not anymore.

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Versatile Screen Capturing With Voila

Global Delight has recently announced their release of a public beta for Viola, an image capture and annotating tool for Mac.

Voila features the ability to capture a region from the screen in a variety of different shapes as well as take a full screen, timed or menu capture — significantly broader functionality than that built into OS X by default. After taking a screen capture, Voila includes annotating tools (text, arrows, callouts, sprays, stamps etc) to make editing simple and, after you’ve completed your annotation, a variety of different export options are present.
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