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- CSS Animation in Latest WebKit Builds, Threat to Flash On iPhone?
According to the official WebKit blog, the browser rendering engine now supports some explicit CSS animations. A recent nightly build brings support for keyframes and repeating animated effects coded directly in CSS. The animation features are currently exclusive to test builds of Safari, but they have already been put into play by Apple in the iPhone and iPod touch’s mobile Safari browser.
Since that’s the easiest way to see them live, I fired up mobile Safari on my iPhone and had a look at the three demos available. There are falling leaves, pulse, and a bouncing box. The falling leaves were probably the most impressive example of the potential this new tech offers, but all three were promising and looked good on the iPhone. They should soon be supported by Safari for the desktop as well, and they have been submitted for inclusion in the official CSS standards, as determined by the W3.
While it’s not clear yet what the limitations of the tech are in terms of interactivity, they do present a nice, simple alternative to overly complicated Flash animations, at least for visuals. Depending on how advanced the support for CSS animations and other effects becomes, Apple may see less of a need for supporting Flash. As the iPhone gains more hold in the mobile browser market, web designers could opt to code in CSS animation effects to reach a broader audience.Regardless of what happens with Flash, CSS animation support is promising for iPhone users and developers alike, since it expands the canvas and promises more graphically-rich content. As long as it doesn’t result in this kind of thing.
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- Elance: The smarter alternative to FTEs
Переслать - 9 Year-Old App Developer More Than Just a Feel-Good Story
Here’s a story that gives new meaning to the term Apple fanboy. A 9-year-old youngster from Singapore, prompted by his younger sisters’ love of drawing, created an application for the iPhone called Doodle Kids. Budding artists create pictures by dragging a finger across the screen and then shake the phone to return to a blank canvas.
According to news reports, fourth-grade protege Lim Ding Wen has been using computers since he was two and already knows six programming languages. Doodle Kids might be his first app in the App Store, but it won’t be his last. Wen is already working on a sci-fi action game for the iPhone called Invader Wars.
Of course, the story of a 9-year-old whiz kid is great to hear, but it also illustrates a larger point about the development process of iPhone apps. It’s clear that we’ve gotten to a point where technology is becoming less mystical and more approachable.
A mere decade ago, computers themselves were still viewed as elusive gadgets and programming was left to people with only the highest levels of geekery in their bloodstream. Now we have kids programming smartphones before they’re old enough to drive a car.
Stories like this — and the proliferation of apps in the App Store created by people with no special training — are a great testimony to the aptitude of the mainstream consumer. Apple offered its user community the opportunity to participate in the development process and people have taken to the idea in droves.Apple deserves a lot of credit for its willingness to open the App Store for people who want to share the applications they create. Of course, Apple isn’t the only community that develops home-grown apps for its platform; and of course, Apple gets something out of the deal as well. It’s great, however, that Apple has created an ecosystem that encourages developers of all ages and skill levels.
It’s tempting to assume that young Lim Ding Wen is an exception among app developers. While he may be one of the youngest people to have an app in the App Store, he isn’t the only one interested. Just this week my 9 year-old son came to me clutching a wish list for his birthday next month. Number two on the list (right after a brand-new Wii game)? The iPhone Software Development Kit.
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Click here to save cost on your IT demandsПереслать - Faceoff: DEVONthink Pro Office vs. Evernote Premium
Organizing information is hard work. There are many applications available to help manage your information. Rather than iterate through each one, let’s talk about two products that hold the key to information management: DEVONthink Pro Office (DTPro), which we reviewed yesterday, and Evernote Premium Edition.
Both of these apps have some functional overlap and some unique differences. Here are the categories for comparison:
- Capturing data
- Managing data
- Sharing data
- Unique features
- iPhone Application
Capturing Data
There are many ways to capture data in these applications.
- Drag-and-drop files in the application’s main window (both).
- Import from a variety of other applications (DTPro: Import menu + AppleScripts).
- Native support for many file formats. Evernote Premium account is required to support files other than PDF. DTPro supports native iWork files, Mail.app/Entourage mail messages and more.
- Import of web archives via bookmarklets (both).
- Mac extensions: DTPro Office Sorter & Evernote’s Clipper.
DEVONthink Pro Office Sorter
Using the Sorter (which extends from the left or right side of your desktop), you can drag-and-drop items (documents, pictures, etc.) and they are automatically redirected to DTPro.
Evernote’s Clipper
Using the Clipper (available via the menu bar), you can either select text and go to the menu or press command keys to send the information to Evernote.
Managing Data
DEVONthink Pro Office Main Window
The DTPro main window utilizes a folder metaphor, similar to the Mac OS Finder. There are many ways to view and work with the data. Further, you can quickly create new files (Rich Text, Text and more) directly from the application.
What really makes DTPro valuable is the Artificial Intelligence (AI) engine. Rather than manually tagging content, DTPro uses its engine to create relevant links between content.
Lastly, DTPro includes an OCR engine that converts images and PDFs into editable files so that you can search for text within each item.
Evernote Main Window
Evernote Premium takes a different approach to managing data. The primary mechanism for organizing information is via user defined tags. You can also create different notebooks for different purposes (for example, PDFs or Office files).
Evernote allows you to quickly add new notes (via RTF) as well as take photo notes via your iSight camera. And, like DTPro, the app uses an OCR engine that converts images and PDFs into editable files. Just note that this OCR conversion is done via the Evernote Web service, not natively in the Evernote application.
Sharing Data
Both products enable you to share your data. With Evernote, you can specify which of your Notebooks you want to Publish to the web. You can then share the URL. Note, unless you use Evernote Premium, all of your data is sent insecurely to Evernote’s servers.
DTPro has the ability to publish its database to a local web server, of which you can either password protect or make public by sharing the IP address and directory.
iPhone Application
Both products have the capability of viewing your information via an iPhone application. For now, Evernote performs better due to its native iPhone app.
Currently, you can access your DTPro content via a web interface on the iPhone. When I spoke with the Devon Technologies CEO, he explained that a native iPhone app is on the roadmap.
DEVONthink Pro Office iPhone web app - Main interface
In order to use the DTPro iPhone web app, you first must set up the web server within DTPro. Next, you use the web app to search and view items (no edit).
Evernote iPhone app
With the native Evernote iPhone app, you can capture photos and voice notes, create text notes and view your captured data (including documents). The interface is pretty seamless and other than network lag, performs pretty well.
Unique Features
What makes Evernote Premium unique is its ubiquitous access. You can get to your data via a variety of apps (desktop, iPhone, web). What makes DTPro unique is its artificial intelligence and rich auto-categorization of your information.
Support
Both products have excellent support, including online video tutorials, help systems, blogs, and more. Devon-technologies also has a very active end-user support forum.
Conclusion
Ultimately, either app will serve you well. However, there are some issues with each.
With Evernote, you have to ask these questions:
- Do you want your data on your computer or someone else’s?
- Do you mind tagging all of your files and defining your own criteria for organization?
- Do you mind that some captured data is not true WYSIWYG (some files do not maintain formatting)?
- Are you prepared to have limitations on viewing large files (PDFs greater than 35 pages) in any of the apps?
- Do you mind having to export each file one-by-one, as Evernote does not have a standard export mechanism for your files?
With DTPro, you have to ask these questions:
- Do you want to spend $149 (retail) or $45/year (Evernote Premium account)?
- Do you mind playing with beta software? 2.0 of DTPro is in beta and won’t ship until the first half of this year.
- Do you want to spend the time learning DTPro’s UI? It isn’t challenging, although there is much more to learn than Evernote.
- Do you mind running a local web server to view your data via remote access?
What other choices do you have?
- Circus Ponies - Notebook 3.0 ($49.95)
- Reinvented Software - Together 2.2 ($39)
- Bare Bones Software Yojimbo 1.5 ($39)
Each of these apps are excellent and are moderately priced. None of the three apps mentioned above have direct OCR capabilities or an iPhone app. Further, only Yojimbo has the ability to view its data remotely or via the iPhone by utilizing another application, Webjimbo ($30) from Flying Mac software.
Conclusion
I decided to part ways with Evernote and move forward with DEVONthink Pro Office, because I wanted more control of my data and the artificial intelligence features were very attractive to me.
What about you? Which tool (if any) do you use for information management? Or, do you use file system and avoid apps like these altogether?
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Click here to save cost on your IT demandsПереслать - JAJAH Can Transform Your iPod Touch Into an iPhone
With the introduction of microphone support and an external speaker, the gap between the iPhone and the iPod touch was becoming increasingly narrow. It was really only a matter of time before it happened, but one company, JAJAH is now claiming to have bridged the space between the two, and brought phone features to the iPod touch, going beyond what even existing VoIP apps have done in the past.
Specifically, JAJAH will allow you to not only make calls with your iPod touch, but also send and receive text messages. Of course, since the device lacks any kind of cellular antenna, you’ll have to be in a Wi-Fi hotspot in order to use JAJAH’s phone features. You’ll also have to have an iPod headset with Mic, and you aren’t actually able to do any of this yet, because JAJAH is not currently available in the App Store. Just like the MMS solution we covered before, JAJAH is a white label service that will be offered for sale to other companies.
Companies who do purchase JAJAH’s white-label goods will get everything, from a custom-branded app to payment infrastructure. The idea is that an interested company will take the product, turn around, and sell air time or service bundles to consumers. In their press release, JAJAH mentions students as a potentially lucrative target market, since they seem to always have Wi-Fi access and they have ample reason to use an affordable long distance solution.I don’t mean to be pessimistic, but I’m not entirely sure this kind of thing will get App Store approval, although JAJAH seems pretty confident. They do suggest in their materials that carriers might want to offer this to extend their reach beyond iPhone owners, but I think they’ll be far more likely to pressure Apple into blocking the release of these kinds of apps where iPhones are sold.
On the other hand, it could be an opportunity to grab long distance customers from traditional, land-line based phone companies, since many now only have a home phone for those types of calls. If rates are good enough, people could end up buying iPod touch talk time instead of using long distance cards, which would appeal to students, businesspeople, and international travelers.
Apple could end up approving the apps because of the potential revenue they stand to gain from iPod touch purchases encouraged by the additional service, but it’ll depend on how much they think they stand to lose from cannibalized iPhone sales. Whatever happens, nice to know the ability is out there, just waiting for corporate buy-in.
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Click here to save cost on your IT demandsПереслать - Daily Apple: Forgetting Fixes, France Free-For-All, & Finer Focus
Snow Leopard to Have Location, Multi-Touch Features - Those who are privy to the latest build of Snow Leopard are reporting that it has some tools familiar to iPhone users. Core Location services, and additional multi-touch features are part of the new package. But wait, MacBooks don’t have GPS, so how does it know where you are? Leveraging existing network hardware and tech, that’s how.
Repair Support Being Phased Out By Apple for “Vintage” Products - I”m having second thoughts about picking up that 12″ Powerbook I was thinking about getting since Apple refuses to release a proper netbook, now that they’ve announced they’re dropping official repair support for the older portable, among others. Check to see if you’ve become obsolete.
Apple Tries Fourth Design for Georgetown Store - Fourth time’s the charm, maybe? It seems like Georgetown is becoming slightly more willing to play ball with Apple’s industrial design mavens. Three previous attempts were blocked, since the neighborhood really likes its heritage and heritage look-a-likes, which does not include a giant glowing white Apple symbol.
Court Upholds Ruling Against iPhone Exclusivity in France - We reported earlier when a watchdog group found France Telecom’s iPhone deal with Apple to be in violation of regulations governing competitiveness. Now, an appeal by the telecommunication company has resulted in the decision being upheld.
iPhone App Makes Up for Weak Built-In Camera - 2 megapixels is lame, and the iPhone camera, with its limited focal range, is not going to win any awards, even among other cellphone cameras. This new app for jailbroken iPhones does a little fancy footwork to double your resolution.
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Hear Microsoft, IBM, Dell and Cisco execs at GigaOM’s Green:Net.Переслать - Beginning Mac: iCal
Calendars have come a long way from the days of a pocket diary, with software able to manage your schedule and information much more reliable and accessible. iCal for OS X is the bundled calendar application, and works surprisingly well. It appears simple on the surface, but packs a wide range of different features and functionality.
This article will walk you through iCal from first opening the app, to having a diary filled with important events, recurring appointments, alarms, attachments, and attendees.
Getting Started
The first step is to open iCal for the first time from your applications folder. You’ll be presented with a window which looks something like this:
Before getting started, you might want to change a few preferences to match the way in which you work. Click iCal > Preferences in the menu bar to review the options available. You’re able to change the days per week, starting day of a week, default alarms for events and a whole range of other options. Once you’re happy with the settings chosen, close the preferences window and we’ll get started adding a few calendars and events.
iCal Views
There are three main viewing modes which can be used within iCal; Day, Week and Month. The month view can be seen above, here’s what to expect when viewing by day or week.
Week view shows you a clearer breakdown of each day:
And viewing by day makes a complicated schedule much easier to make sense of:
Dealing With Calendars
Within iCal, you are able to run several ‘Calendars’. These would commonly represent different projects or areas of your life. These are a few of the calendars I have running:
You can have as many or as few as needed, and adding a new calendar is simple. Click the ‘plus’ icon towards the lower left of the iCal window to add a new calendar (or hold Shift whilst pressing it to add a new group/folder). Once added, right click the new calendar and select ‘Get Info’ to bring up an options window:
Here, you can alter the color of the calendar, or ‘publish’ the calendar through MobileMe — this is a more complicated step, which you probably won’t need to explore at first.
Dealing With Events
Once a few calendars are in place, you’ll need to enter your events/appointments. To do so, right click on the appropriate day, then select ‘New Event’. Type a name, then double click the event. This will bring up a window similar to the following:
A number of options are available within the new event window:
- Location: Enter the place where you’ll be meeting
- All-day: If it’s an all day event, select this option to let iCal know
- From/To: You can enter the start and end time (or days, for an all-day event)
- Repeat: This allows you to schedule an event to re-occur at a set interval (every day, week, month, year, or a custom schedule). It works brilliant for birthdays, or regular bill payments etc
- Calendar: Here, select the appropriate calendar for the event
- Alarm: I’ve covered these various options below
- Attendees: Again, these are covered below
- Attachments: You can add files and documents to a calendar event so you have all the information you need at hand
Alarms
There are several different ways to be notified of an event:
All the different notification methods can be set to occur either at the time of the event, or a set period before. The first two cause a reminder to pop up on your screen with the details of the event, or you can perform more complex actions such as automatically sending an email, or running a file/script.
Attendees
iCal has fairly robust built-in support for dealing with attendees. Integration with Address Book means that sending invitations to attend is simple. Emails are sent to request the person’s attendance, to which they can reply in the way which best suits them. iCal will show a question mark next to the invitee’s name until they respond:
To Do Lists
If you have a list of tasks which need completing, but don’t have a set day or time, you can use iCal’s To Do feature. Clicking the ‘Push Pin’ icon in the lower right corner of the window will display the list of current To Do lists. Adding a new one is as simple as right clicking and selecting ‘New To Do’.
In the same way as calendar events, To Dos are assigned to a particular calendar. Priorities of High, Medium and Low can be assigned to automatically rank tasks in their order of importance:
Time Zones
The final feature to be mentioned is that of automatic time zone support. Clicking ‘Enable Time Zone Support’ in the preference window as outlined at the beginning will add the following text to the upper right of the iCal window (obviously varying depending upon your time zone):
Now, when scheduling meetings you are able to note the time zone in which it will occur. iCal will factor in the difference between your current location and automatically ensure that you’re notified about the meeting at the right time.
If you’d like to add an event which is independent of any time zone, you can select the ‘Floating’ option when adding a new entry.
Conclusion
When first opening iCal, it doesn’t seem like a particularly powerful or complicated application. However, as you start to enter calendars, events and to dos, it becomes clear that it can offer a comprehensive solution to managing your schedule.
I hope that this article has provided a good overview of the iCal basics. If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment!
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Click here to save cost on your IT demandsПереслать - DEVONthink Professional Office 2.0 Beta Review
DEVONtechnologies this week released the second public betas of their new DEVONthink and DEVONnote information manager applications, and I downloaded Professional Office Version 2 to take a looksee. Already one a powerful productivity tool for OS X, this major update adds even more convenience, functionality and versatility to DEVONthink Pro Office.
To recap a bit, DEVONtechnologies insists that DEVONthink is not a “database,” and of course it’s much more than a database program, although it serves as one quite well, but the real genius of DEVONthink is that it does so many other useful things extremely well. The 1.x versions of DEVONthink Professional Office added email archiving, OCR, scanning, and Web sharing to the base DEVONthink feature set, which includes ability to open both Microsoft Word documents and PDF documents with formatting intact as editable text.
New features in DEVONthink Pro Office 2.0 include splitting and merging PDFs and the ability to copy and paste PDF pages from one document to another. RSS feeds are sped up using multi-threading and have a new, customizable RSS preferences panel. Also, any document can be emailed directly from within DEVONthink Pro Office. We’ll take a detailed look at some of the new features below.
Supports MS Office, PDF And Now iWork Files
DEVONthink 2.0, in addition to Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and PDF, also can now import and display OpenOffice and iWork (Pages, Numbers, Keynote) files, skim PDF packages and any other file formats that support or are supported by Mac OS X 10.5 QuickLook.
Before the Version 2 beta could access my DEVONthink databases, they had to be converted to the new DEVONthink 2 format, a process that went quickly and happily leaves the existing Version 1.x files undisturbed. The downside, I presume, being that any revisions you make with the Version 2 beta database will not be backward compatible with the older final version of the application.
New User Interface Appearance
I really like DEVONthink’s new user interface appearance, which has been refreshed and feature-enhanced without changing its familiar core functionality.
QuickLook Support
DEVONthink Pro Office taps into Spotlight importers and plugins for indexing and searching files, and also happily now supports QuickLook previews in its web interface. Support for PDF display in browsers other than Safari has been added, with the Sorter (see below) now able to create web archives from OmniWeb and Firefox and name documents more reliably. Email archiving has been sped up and converting databases and exporting files made more reliable, although I hadn’t experienced any problems in that department with Version 1.x.
The “Sorter”
Perhaps my favorite new feature is the ‘Sorter’ panel that lets you add data to your databases even when DEVONthink Pro is not open. A Global inbox replaces the erstwhile import destinations chaos and you can link any DEVONthink database group to be accessible via a pop-out tab in the OS X Finder.
If the database connected to a Sorter box is not open at the moment, the Sorter stores your data until the database becomes available (e.g. when you open it in DEVONthink) and flushes the box content automatically. You can manually dispatch data still stored in the Sorter to DEVONthink by clicking the Sorter's action menu button (in the lower right or left corner) and choosing 'Send to DEVONthink.'
New Speedier Database Engine Uses Less Memory
DEVONthink 2.0’s new database engine is speedier and less of a memory hog than the old one, and multiple databases can be open simultaneously. DEVONthink now stores all files in their original file formats (big improvement) so they no longer need to be converted when importing and can be edited using external applications. All documents can be accessed from outside DEVONthink using a standard URL.
A New OCR Engine Based On ABBYY FineReader
Networking will be included in the final release, and is faster, more accurate, and produces much smaller PDFs than the engines used in previous releases.
My only major criticism of DEVONthink is that it has been and continues to be not terribly intuitive to use and requires a fairly steep learning curve, but that is partly due to this application’s remarkably deep feature set. Once you get it figured out, it works really well.
The public beta releases of DEVONthink Pro and Pro Office 2.0, DEVONthink Personal 2.0, and DEVONnote 2.0 require Mac OS X 10.5 or later, and will expire on March 31, 2009. DEVONthink Professional Office sells for $149.95, DEVONthink Professional for $79.95, DEVONthink Personal for $49.95, and DEVONnote for $24.95. You can download the beta versions here.
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Hear Microsoft, IBM, Dell and Cisco execs at GigaOM’s Green:Net.Переслать - Windows 7 Editions: Still Too Many
Microsoft has made public their “edition strategy” (my term, not theirs) for Windows 7. While there are still too many editions, at least they make a little more sense, and offer a better overall choice, than what Vista offered.Paul Thurrott has a write-up on the editions at his Super Site for Windows. He was “critical” of Microsoft for their edition strategy for Vista, and is now a major cheerleader for 7’s set of editions. He believes Microsoft has really simplified things. Lost on Paul is that when a 2,000+ word article is required to outline the various editions, it’s not simple. There are too many versions, but I’ll get to that shortly.
The Windows 7 Edition Lineup
Here’s what will be available when Win7 is released:
- Starter
- Home Basic
- Home Premium
- Professional
- Enterprise
- Ultimate
Whew! Right now you’re thinking, “Six Editions! How can that possibly be simpler than Vista?”. Well, in many ways you’re right, but the editions are better than before, and for a lot of users it’s likely going to come down to just two choices. Let’s take a brief look at each.
StarterThis is probably the closest thing to a “Netbook Edition” Microsoft will go. They needed a flavor of Win7 in this market or it would be either XP forever or cede it to Linux. Neither was acceptable, of course, so they have an edition available globally for this purpose.
Its restrictions (e.g., “you can run only three applications at once”) virtually ensure no one will put it on anything other than a low-power netbook, which is just how MS wants it (i.e., you want more, you pay more). Further, it’s for new PCs only (no retail box), so MS isn’t too worried about non-netbook machines making do with this version.
Remember that Microsoft says Win7 has a small enough footprint for Home Premium (or others) to run fine on a netbook. However, I suspect the license price of those editions would keep many netbooks from being “affordable,” a major selling point of that market. Obviously, Microsoft would have no issue with this, but I think Starter is necessary so that truly low-cost netbooks could go with a “modern” Microsoft OS.
Home Basic
This is where Microsoft gets tricky, or greedy, or whatever you want to call it. You need to read towards the end of Paul’s article to even see this one, as he calls it “hidden.” Unlike Starter, this will not be available globally, but rather only in “emerging markets.” I think this is Microsoft-speak for “low-cost PC markets that would otherwise pirate another edition.”
Why not just use Starter for this purpose? I think Microsoft wants to wring every buck they can get out of this. While Home Basic will have to be cheap, I suspect it’ll grab a few more bucks than Starter, which MS targets for netbooks only.
Home Premium
This is one for new PCs and retail box sales. Unlike Starter and Basic, it comes with Aero and most of the other cool visuals/features everyone’s heard of. The features left out of this edition the average user is not likely to miss.
Professional
Best thing about this is the name. Yes, calling your software or hardware Pro is the oldest trick in the book, and is more for appealing to the ego of the user than anything else. But it sure beats the heck out of Business as a name.
It also makes sense from a feature standpoint, as Pro includes everything in Home Premium, and then adds, well, “pro” features like Domain Join, Remote Desktop host and Presentation Mode. Like Premium, this edition will be available in retail box and new PCs. Expect “high-end” PCs to come with Pro. It just sounds better. It’ll likely be a pretty popular BTO upgrade as well.
Enterprise
Obviously, a huge market for Microsoft and a way to give discounts to this customer base. Enterprise is basically Ultimate but with volume licensing. You won’t see it on new commercial PCs or in retail boxes.
Ultimate
You see? Even “pros” don’t get everything. I think Ultimate is yet another money grab to wring every last dime outta their market. It’s basically Pro “plus.” Included are such must-haves as BitLocker and Branch Cache.
Ultimate will be available at retail and on new PCs, but the feeling is that it’ll likely just be there as a BTO upgrade option on PCs. Ultimate: When Only Everything Will Do.
What Microsoft Got Right
- I think Starter makes sense from a netbook standpoint. It puts a current Microsoft OS squarely in the game, even as more expensive netbooks can use higher editions.
- Each edition is a true superset of the one preceding it. This takes away the confusion of balancing what you gain, say, in Vista Business, with what you lose by not getting Vista Home Premium.
- They will emphasize Home Premium and Professional, even downplaying Ultimate. Six versions, but they’re going to rely primarily on two, which are solid versions.
What Microsoft Got Wrong
- I think Home Basic is unnecessary. Again, I see it as a grab for a few more bucks from “emerging” markets. Strip a couple restrictions from Starter and let that be your basic version.
- Given the above, Home Premium could then be just Premium, which sounds better, and is a nice counter to Professional.
- Ultimate is unnecessary. Again, a quick grab for a few more bucks. Toss everything into Professional and let Ultimate die. Besides, having a product that admits every other edition is lacking features is kind of stupid, in my opinion.
- No matter how much Microsoft downplays all but Home Premium and Professional, those other versions are out there, and they will confuse the market. Why go there? Microsoft learned from Vista, but not enough.
Conclusion
In my view, Microsoft should have gone from Starter (global netbooks, emerging country low-cost PCs), Premium (what 70 percent of consumer PCs would come with), Professional (for “pros”, those who want to be, or those who simply want everything), and of course Enterprise (volume discounts on Professional).
It would be much easier to articulate the above versions (because they make sense), instead of clouding the issue with a Home Basic and Ultimate version.
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Hear Microsoft, IBM, Dell and Cisco execs at GigaOM’s Green:Net.Переслать - 240GB of iPod Storage, But Not From Apple
If you’re feeling cramped by the iPod Classic’s 120GB of storage space, and you’re willing to either get your hands dirty or let others do the work and reward them handsomely for it, then you can double that capacity and get an iPod with 240 gigs of music and video holding goodness. There is another catch, though. You have to have held on to an older model iPod Video to get this to work, which means I’m glad I resisted the urge to sell mine when I bought my 1G iPod Touch.There is yet another catch. You’ll need to fork over nearly $300 for a new 1.8″ Toshiba hard drive, which makes it essentially like buying a brand new iPod. Still, it was an intriguing prospect, and I always like to try to refurbish or repurpose old hardware rather than throw it out or let it lie idle. The mod, offered by Rapid Repair, does involve some prodding and prying, though, something which I’m not often keen to take on myself, being all thumbs.
Adding the Rapid Repair installation option to the order didn’t seem to change the price, although I didn’t actually complete the purchase, so I can’t be sure that some kind of cost isn’t incurred. The drive actually comes with a free iPod disassembly tool, although I would have to pay an extra $10.00 to get the thicker backing, since my iPod Video is only a 30GB model. Rapid Repair plans to extend the mod to newer iPod Classic models as well.
If you’re a braver man or woman than me, and are planning on trying this, let us here at TAB know how things went.
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Hear Microsoft, IBM, Dell and Cisco execs at GigaOM’s Green:Net.Переслать - Daily Apple: Norway Hearts iTunes, Wait Extend for Extra 2″, & Fun With Spelling
New Snow Leopard Updated Seeded to Select Group - A new build of the still experimental OS X Snow Leopard has been seeded to developers, but not to all. The app improves stability without adding any new big changes, which may be a sign that Apple is prepping it for public release. No info on why the testing pool is limited at this time.
Norway Okay With iTunes, Now That DRM is Gone - Norway’s consumer ombudsman has dropped his complaint against Apple now that they’ve gone DRM-free with iTunes tracks, according to CNET. They’re just one of many European groups to have lodged complaints against Apple for their protection, all of which will likely be dropped now that they’re no longer relevant or meaningful. Makes sense to me.
17-inch MacBook Pro Shipments Get Delayed - Apparently it wasn’t late January, like we reported earlier. In fact, its now early February, and users are receiving notices of delays instead of shiny new 17-inch MacBook Pros. The new ship date of 3-4 weeks puts delivery into March. Apple give the reason as “wrapping” difficulties. The new packaging must be amazingly complicated.
Samsung App Store to Launch With Over 1,000 Titles - Samsung, who makes a lot of phones, has decided to start up an app store of their very own for their devices. That officially makes the app store thing a full-fledged trend, since pretty much everyone is getting on board. Where’s yours, Nokia, or do you want to become as irrelevant as Motorola?
Take Out the “D”, Add In An “H, N, E” - That’s how your turn an iPod into an iPhone. Or, as the analyst quoted in this piece suggests, bundle iPhones with a built-in data plan. My way is easier, if less tangible.
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Click here to save cost on your IT demandsПереслать - Time Tracking Via the iPhone: 5 Apps Reviewed
Videography is my chosen profession and I love it. However, no passion goes unscathed by inconvenience, regardless of how small. As a freelancer, I am constantly burdened with the need to track time for clients. Brian Warren a few days ago wrote a very in-depth article reviewing On The Job 3.0, an amazing program that I have used myself when at my desk. However I needed something that was a bit more portable when I’m out shooting or doing preparations and still need to keep track of my time.
This is when I turned to my iPhone as a solution for such a problem. While browsing for such an App I noticed that there were nearly enough time tracking apps on the iPhone that they can almost garner themselves their own category in the App store. After diligently browsing all of them, I narrowed my selection down to the five I would try out, and I tried each one for a few days before making my decision on which is best to fit my needs.
Bill4Time Mobile
2.5 stars / Free, $19.99 for an account
Key Features: SSL encrypted, integration with Quickbooks, and multiple pricing levels for invoicing purposes. Not to mention all of the typical features for an app such as this; and it is also free.However Bill4Time comes with a few strings attached. This iPhone App is actually a mobile platform for the Bill4Time.com Web and Desktop application, which costs $19.99 per user. This was a solid app for me as far as potential features, however I did not need the Web variant of this application, and the $19.99 price tag didn’t help me decide in Bill4Time’s favor.
PunchClock
3 stars / 99 cents
Key Features: Ability to set different price points for different tasks, export to HTML.This is a pretty basic but it does come in as one of the cheaper applications in this comparison, and you do get what you pay for. Among the basic features there was one feature that was not present. The one feature that I desired that I saw that PunchClock lacked was invoicing capabilities. As far as this app’s exporting capabilities go, it could be better. It simply emails an Excel file to whomever you wish, which is handy; but the file itself is extremely unorganized and frustrating to decipher. This is a fairly young app, so hopefully we will see this in later updates. But for now my verdict is that PunchClock is too basic for my needs, and it just wouldn’t meet my needs until it implements a few necessary features.
iTimeSheet
3 stars / $5.99
Key Features: Exporting to Excel, Analytic module with charts, week/month/day navigation, and Searching.iTimesheet seemed more to me to be a fun muse rather than a professional application for freelancers. It has the potential to meet all the criteria for what I needed in an App such as this, but for some reason I find myself unhappy with it. I would attribute these shortcomings to the lack of ability to set a price for different projects, and as far as the analytical mode, I found it to be quite interesting, albeit not very useful.
A few features I would like to see in future updates to this app would include the ability to see a total amount of time for a particular client, as well as the total amount of time spent on a project. I would also like to see a feature implemented that allowed me to set a price for each particular project; for example set a project at $65/hr, and have it calculate my totals. Then this app might prove to be useful. As of right now iTimeSheet Lite is the way to go simply because it is free, I personally don’t find the $5.99 price tag all that appealing for this particular App.
Easytimesheet
3 stars / $2.99
Key Features: Full featured Email client, Password protected, support for different currencies.This app comes in at $2.99 and in my opinion it honestly isn’t worth that. Sure it is a cheaper price, but after using it for a day or two you will be frustrated and find yourself back at this review trying to figure out a different solution for the time tracking problems.
One notable feature included in this app is its inclusion of a full featured Email client. I thought this to be a huge plus until I used it, it was buggy, at times crashed, and I just found it much easier to use the iPhone’s defualt mail client. Aside from that, this app didn’t have the features I was looking for when I went on this search for the perfect time tracking App.
TimeWerks
3.5 stars / $4.99
Key Features: Ability to track multiple project and clients, different rates for different projects, multiple currencies, and exporting into HTML.I believe out of all of the apps I looked at, this one impressed me the most. It gives you the ability to sort, track, and invoice multiple projects for multiple clients, and set prices for different types of jobs. Once you are finished with a job it features the ability to email the invoice which is in a very readable format. View a sample here.
This program is easily the most feature heavy of all the apps in this comparison, and that does come with bit of a learning curve. However, anyone with a little iPhone savvy should be able to adapt to this app in a minimal amount of time. In the end I deemed this one worth of its $4.99 price tag, and will be using this in the future to keep try of my projects and clients.
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Click here to save cost on your IT demandsПереслать - Apple Moving iLife to Intel-Only, Putting PowerPC Out to Pasture?
iLife ‘09 recently arrived and brought with it loads of goodies and new features for users upgrading from previous versions. iPhoto ’09’s facial recognition tech is the talk of the town, since it can apparently even distinguish between cats. Aspiring musicians can learn from the greats, albeit for a fee, via Garage Band’s “Artist Lessons”. Or rather, aspiring musicians who are lucky enough to be using a Mac with an Intel processor can learn from the greats. Those still running PPC architecture have actually been left out in the cold by Apple this time around.
It’s not like “Intel-only” is something Mac users haven’t heard before, but this is the first time Apple has applied it to their popular consumer-level media suite, as Ars Technica points out. As someone who’s currently shopping for a gently used 12″ PowerBook G4, which I’m opting for over a new netbook, the news is somewhat disconcerting. Or dis-”concerting”, rather. See what I did there?
The problem is not so much with my not being able to pay $6.50 for questionably useful musical instruction from celebrities, but with the possibility that this represents the first crack in the dam, so to speak. If Apple begins excluding PowerPC architecture from its support list, it’s unlikely that anyone else will continue to respect the technology either. Should they, though? One of the benefits of buying Apple hardware in the past has been the durability of the computers, and the fact that they retain so much resale value, even as they advance significantly in age. Still, does that mean that Apple and others should bend over backwards to offer legacy support?I’d argue that yes, they should, if they want to keep their reputation of being a computer that you can happily own for many years, and then pass on or find another loving home for when you are finished. And that reputation will remain intact, so long as the core functionality remains accessible, even if glittering extras like Norah Jones helping you play piano might not.
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Click here to save cost on your IT demandsПереслать - Certified Refurbished Macs One Way to Help Weather the Economic Storm
Apple is taking a lot of stick (even more than usual) about hanging tough with premium pricing despite the global financial meltdown, and it almost never offers discounts or sales. So how can budget-constrained Macheads economize on system upgrades? One solution is to buy a less-expensive model than the one you would have perhaps preferred. Another is get an Apple Certified Refurbished machine instead of going new.
If you’re not familiar with Apple Certified Refurbished (ACR) products, here are the broad strokes: ACR units are pre-owned (or in some instances, such as store demos, never-sold) Apple products that undergo Apple’s stringent refurbishment process prior to being offered for sale. Most of these units have been returned under Apple’s Return and Refund Policies, but according to Apple, only some of them are returned due to technical issues. In any event, all ACR units undergo Apple’s quality refurbishment process.
- Full functionality testing (including burn-in testing).
- Refurbishing with replacement parts and components for any defective modules identified in testing.
- Thoroughly cleaned and inspected.
- Complete repackaging by Apple, including appropriate manuals, cables, etc. (albeit in a brown cardboard carton rather than one with full color lithographs on the box)
- Operating software that originally shipped with the unit and any custom software offered with that system.
- A new refurbished part number and serial number.
- A final QA inspection.
- Quality testing follows the same basic technical guidelines as Apple’s Finished Goods testing procedures.
A really cool thing is that Apple Certified Refurbished Products are covered by the same One-Year Limited Warranty as Apple’s new systems. Apple ACR product purchasers are also eligible for the option of purchasing the AppleCare Protection Plan that extends the basic warranty coverage on your Apple Certified Refurbished Product to up to three years.My own experiences with purchasing Apple Certified Refurbished products, including a 17″ PowerBook, and iPods for my daughter and wife, have all been very positive. While it’s a small sampling, all three of these units arrived flawless both functionally and cosmetically, a track record that convinced me to go with the ACR unibody MacBook 2.0 I ordered last week (which I’m awaiting arrival of at this writing).
My current workhorse, the ACR 1.33 GHz 17-inch PowerBook, was issued its new refurbished serial number on July 17, 2005, and appeared to have been a hardly used if at all, with no cosmetic damage or evidence of wear on the keys, trackpad, or palm-rests. It came packaged in a brown Apple carton, with all the the cables, peripherals, manuals, and software CDs packaged as new.
Buying any computer — new or refurbished — is always a bit of a dice-roll, but it seems plausible to me that a lightly-used refurbished machine could actually be a statistically better prospect for avoiding new-machine problems, since it has presumably been double-checked out and given a clean bill of health by Apple technicians. That said, a friend of mine did get a DOA Apple Certified Refurbished iBook a couple of years back. He received a prompt refund, but opted to replace it with a new iBook rather than another ACR machine.
Your mileage may vary, but my deduction is that with an Apple Certified Refurbished unit increased risk of problems, if any, would be minimal and the savings realized can be substantial.
The ACR MacBook I just ordered will cost me CAN $1199, or CAN $200 (14%) off the list price for that model, a difference nicely covering the cost of a USB modem and a third-party upgrade to 4GB RAM with change left over. It was also only CAN $50 more than the new price of the recently upgraded white MacBook.
ACR model availability is constantly in flux, sometimes from hour to hour, on the Apple Store’s refurbished pages, but when in stock, unibody 15″ MacBook Pro 2.4GHz units are currently going for $1,699.00 ($300.00 or 15% off list) at the U.S. store. On older models the saving off original list prices are commensurately greater. For example, a 17″ MacBook Pro 2.5GHz at $1,899.00 ($600.00 or 24% off original list).
Also, if your fancy is a fairly recent discontinued model (for example, a black MacBook), they crop up frequently on the ACR site. The trick is to keep checking. (Hint: I’ve unscientifically observed that mid to late in the week seems to turn up the best selection.)
What do you think? Better to play it safe and buy new or be a bit adventurous and save money with a Certified Refurbished unit?
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Click here to save cost on your IT demandsПереслать - Daily Apple: Apps in Parallel, 3G Suits Multiply, & Twitter Recommends
Background Tasks Coming to iPhone - MacRumors is citing, well, I’m not sure what they’re citing, but they’re saying Apple is considering user-selectable background tasks instead of push notification support. As you probably know, Apple originally promised push notification long, long ago, and then pulled it, and then we haven’t heard anything. I just want to play Last.fm while checking my email.
More Tablet Rumors Stirred Up By Patent Application - I’m on a roll, with two patent mentions in two days. This one’s about an Apple tablet, rumors of which will never die because the thing is so many Apple diehards’ most tantalising fantasy. It’s not hard to make a good one, as Axiotron knows, so I don’t know what’s stopping them.
Kindle 2.0 Could Come from Amazon Early as Next Monday - Take that with a grain of salt, as its based on the research of a Citigroup analyst, and so constitutes little more than an educated guess. We’ll see if they make enough improvements to threaten the iPhone’s position as the most popular e-reader.
Lawsuit City for Apple Over 3G Speeds - Two more lawsuits have been launched against Apple and AT&T over the speeds of the iPhone 3G’s network. The suit claims insufficient hardware speed and infrastructure, which explains why both parties are to blame. I have no frame of reference, but I’ve never had cause to become impatient because of the thing. I think I just ruined my eligibility to cash in should a class action suit result in a pay out.
Twitter-Generated List of OS X Software - Blogger Darren Barefoot just recently got a Mac, and was looking to outfit it with apps, so he turned to Twitter. The result of his inquiry is a rather handy list of great apps for OS X. Check out part two, as well.
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Click here to save cost on your IT demandsПереслать - Apple's Multi-Touch Patent Revisited
I wrote about the patent Apple received for this, but I’d like to comment further in light of all the discussion going on about the relative usefulness of this patent.
A lot of the discussion seems to stem from these sources:
- A Gizmodo article using a “professor of patents law” as a source.
- An analyst report that claims Apple going after Palm could cause more harm than good.
I do not dispute these are valid opinions, but so are the opposite.
The tech world has set this up as between Apple and Palm despite Apple’s own denials. Frankly, it’s not clear to me why Apple would stop (or start, for that matter) with Palm. Seems to me, if they’re going to fire this weapon there are plenty others in line.
My biggest issue is that none of these articles and opinions can possibly be even close to definitive. They cannot. Let me see a show of hands on the following:
- Who believes that Gizmodo could just as easily have found a patent “expert” who believes the opposite?
Good, good, all hands are raised.
- Who believes another analyst report could have reached the opposite conclusion?
Yes, that’s correct. Nothing but hands.
- Finally, who believes that Apple’s “experts” support Apple’s view, and their counterparts at a rival company support that company’s view?
A sea of hands. Excellent! TheAppleBlog must have the smartest readers anywhere.
My point is that if an “expert” could read the patent and make a definitive determination we’d never even have gotten this far. After all, if he read it and then told Apple it’ll never fly, wouldn’t they just say, “Oh, shucks. Well, it worth a try. We never get to patent the cool stuff,” then pout and sulk back to their rooms?
This cannot be solved definitely unless and until it gets into a courtroom, and there are hours of testimony from “experts” on each side (who, surprise!, do not agree), and judge and jury are involved. And even then, when a decision is reached, there will be howls of derision from many that it was all wrong.
I don’t know what Apple’s strategy is here. I suspect they don’t want obvious rip-offs to make a few bucks, and hope to keep them at bay. Still, only they know what their plans are.
There seems to be more than just one overall multi-touch patent. I think any moves Apple makes would be somewhat specific, and not some kind of hammer claiming all touch devices since the iPhone are rip-offs. I believe Apple is more specific in what they consider IP rip-off than people are giving them credit for.
Most of the attention has settled on Palm and Apple. Many think Palm has patents of their own they can hammer Apple with. To that extent, they believe there could be some cross-licensing agreements made. My first thoughts on this are:
- If Palm’s patents are so good, why did they abandon their own OS — in which presumably the patented technology is used — and start selling Windows Mobile, an OS even Microsoft fans ridicule?
- Why has Palm sat around for over two years and said (and done) nothing about the iPhone if it’s walking all over their patents? Forget action, there hasn’t even been so much as a threat. Palm was awfully quiet about this patent portfolio until they responded to the tech press stoking the fires about Apple.
- Seems to me Palm taking no action with valid patents, and abandoning their own OS, goes a long way to saying they may not have the dangerous patent portfolio some people think they do. At the very least it doesn’t help their case any.
Apple’s patent was just granted. It remains to be seen how they’ll use this potential weapon, but it seems to me they have bullets in their gun. I suspect half of them are blanks, but at least it’s loaded; I think Palm’s may be empty.
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Click here to save cost on your IT demandsПереслать - Google Adds Task Syncing to the iPhone
While Apple still seems stubbornly set against allowing iPhone users to get things done, since they haven’t introduced any kind of note or to-do syncing for the iPhone, Google appears eager to scratch the itch.
Today, Google announced that iPhone users can now visit an iPhone-optimized Gmail Tasks site by pointing their Safari browser to http://gmail.com/tasks. Tasks you create at the site are automatically synced to your Gmail account and are accessible via your desktop browser as well. The new optimized site was unveiled by Google Tasks Engineer Michael Bolin at the Official Gmail Blog yesterday.
After playing with the new web app for a little while, I can say that it’s an impressive offering from the folks at Google. The interface is visually appealing, and not too flashy. It works so well you almost forget you’re using a web app at all, with smooth transitions back and forth between screens, and easy to hit checkboxes for marking tasks complete or incomplete. You can create multiple lists to keep track of your tasks, and add Notes to any individual item on your lists. And it comes complete with a nice icon, should you decide to add a bookmark to your home screen.
The blog post by Bolin focuses on the whys and wherefores of how the design for the mobile version of Tasks came about, and it makes sense that his goal was accessibility and simplicity. Still, as someone who uses Remember the Milk and Appigo Todo, I do find myself missing some of the more advanced features of those apps. RTM’s location and tagging features in particular are ones that I find myself using a lot. And they still offer simple, quick task addition if you’re in a hurry or can’t be bothered to go into detail.Still, Google’s offering is free, works well, and does what it means to, so if you’re just looking to keep things simple and remember to pick up your dry cleaning, then this is a great little app that fills in for some of Apple’s missing features. Check out the video below, or just navigate to the site with your iPhone or iPod touch.
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Hear Microsoft, IBM, Dell and Cisco execs at GigaOM’s Green:Net.Переслать - Tor On the Mac: Not as Hard as It Looks
Until very recently, Tor was always something I heard about online but never used. I never considered myself enough of a “hardcore” geek to really pursue it, but it turned out to be much simpler to use that I thought. So for those of you that were like me consider this a crash course in Tor for the Mac.
What is Tor?
Tor protects you by bouncing your communications around a distributed network of relays run by volunteers all around the world: it prevents somebody watching your Internet connection from learning what sites you visit, and it prevents the sites you visit from learning your physical location.
As its icon implies, Tor acts like an onion in the way that your online traffic is protected. If someone wanted to track your online activities while running Tor they would see only the layers and layers of relays run by volunteers worldwide. Due to the large number of relays, the original source of the traffic (you) is virtually invisible.
Although people are quick to associate Tor with illegal online activity, many other people and organizations use Tor for legitimate, and often life-saving, activities. For example, journalists in certain countries where honest reporting is punishable by prison or death can use Tor to publish their stories anonymously. According to torproject.org:
A branch of the U.S. Navy uses Tor for open source intelligence gathering, and one of its teams used Tor while deployed in the Middle East recently. Law enforcement uses Tor for visiting or surveilling web sites without leaving government IP addresses in their web logs, and for security during sting operations.
Hopefully you can begin to see the advantages of having a service like Tor and the hundreds of people who volunteer their computers for relays to help protect the privacy of the rest of us. Visit the overview page of torproject.org for a great set of illustrations created by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) on how Tor works.
A Brief Warning
Having educated myself over the past few weeks on how Tor works, I should take a moment to tell you that Tor is not magic. Once you drag Tor into your Applications folder you are not suddenly protected from the world. You will need to establish some new habits and tweak your software (Firefox) in order for Tor to work correctly. Please read these warnings before you start using Tor to ensure that you have everything configured correctly. The last thing I want to see is for one of our TAB readers write a blog post critical of their government and find themselves in jail because they thought their Internet traffic was anonymous.
That being said, setting Tor up correctly is not that difficult. Is my mom going to be able to use Tor? Probably not. But my wife, who uses our Macs only for iPhoto, email and Facebook, would be able to set up and use Tor without a problem. This means if you’re savvy enough to have found this post, you have enough skills to run Tor. So, let’s talk about how to get started.
Getting Started
Visit the download page and install the latest stable version of the Tor bundle. The bundle includes Tor, Vidalia (GUI for Tor), Torbutton (Firefox extension), and Privoxy (filtering web proxy) — all pre-configured to work together.
This neat little package is why Tor is simple to use. If you had to download and install each of these pieces individually, this post would be 10x as long.
The next step is to configure your applications to work with Tor. As I mentioned above, it’s not enough to install the Tor package — you’ll have to spend an extra 5 minutes getting your applications ready. For most of you, the main application you’ll be using with Tor is your browser. Installing the Tor bundle will also install a Firefox plugin that will allow you to easily turn on/off Tor with the click of your mouse. That’s all there is to it.
You can also run other applications with Tor such as your IM client — anything that supports HTTP proxies. Simply change your proxy settings to point to localhost port 8118 and Privoxy (in your bundle) will do the rest.
Once you’ve configured your applications, visit check.torproject.org to see if Tor is installed and working properly. If for some reason it’s not working, start by making sure that Vidalia is running and that you have clicked the “Tor Disabled” button in the lower-right corner of Firefox to enable Torbutton. If Tor is still not working, then your most likely culprit is a firewall. See this FAQ for firewall configuration information and this FAQ for general tips for getting Tor to work.
If you’ve received a clean bill of health from check.torproject.org then you’re free to browse anonymously. See? That wasn’t too painful was it? However, since the network depends on volunteers to make the service stronger and more secure I recommend reading the Relay Configuration Guide and making the necessary changes to allow others to use a portion of your bandwidth to stay anonymous.
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Click here to save cost on your IT demandsПереслать
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