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- iStat Menus Now Purrs Like a Snow Leopard
Has it been a long almost-week for anyone else who upgraded on day one of Snow Leopard? My upgrade experience went swimmingly, with the glaring exception of iStat Menus not working. Since then, iSlayer.com (home of iStat Menus) has been set as my homepage so I can check it obsessively for news of a 10.6 compatible update. This morning was especially bright and beautiful, and was only made more so by the release of iStat Menus version 2.0, which of course, is Snow Leopard compatible!
Quickly, iStat Menus (a Preference Pane in System Preferences) puts all the system monitoring information you could want, right in the menu bar (that bar at the top of your screen, if you’re a recent Switcher). I hadn’t realized how often I used the CPU, Memory, and Date& Time meters, until they were unavailable to me. I run Windows XP in Parallels at work, so keeping a close eye on my MacBook Pro’s resources has become important to me so that my work doesn’t hit any speed bumps. Additionally, there are meters for Disk Usage, Disk Activity, Network, and Temp Sensors. (They also have an iPhone app that does the same thing, monitoring both your Mac, remotely, and your iPhone.)
The new 2.0 version, above everything else, is Snow Leopard compatible. But the Preference Pane that iStat Menus lives within also got a nice interface update. Now it’s possible to drag and drop the visual elements that you’d like to be displayed in the Menu Bar. It functions sort of like a live preview, and is a nice new feature. The premise of this utility is fairly basic, and doesn’t need much updating otherwise — but who doesn’t love a shiny new GUI?
iStat Menus is donationware, meaning you may use it for nothing. But once you realize how often you rely on it, how could you not kick the developer a few well-deserved dollars?
Переслать - AT&T Specifies iPhone MMS Go-Live Date
AT&T customers can finally get their multimedia messaging on come the end of September, according to a company spokesman speaking to TUAW’s Mel Martin today. The official go-live date is Sept. 25, which falls only a tad short of the company’s original late summer prediction for the service.
Spokesman Brad Mays ascribes the lateness of MMS’ arrival to the unmatched size of AT&T’s iPhone user base. The U.S. provider does have far more subscribers than any other carrier globally, and its network has shown signs of strain already. No doubt significant infrastructure build or reconfiguration was required to enable MMS support.
MMS will be enabled via a carrier settings software update on Sept. 25, which users will be able to download by connecting their iPhone to iTunes and approving the update when prompted. No actual iPhone firmware update should be required at that time.
Mays also comments briefly on tethering, but sadly, only to dash your hopes, my American friends:
As for tethering, by its nature, this function could exponentially increase traffic on the network, and we need to ensure that some of our current upgrades are in place before we can deliver the expanded functionality with the excellent performance that customers expect. We expect to offer tethering in the future.
Well, maybe not dash exactly, but definitely forestall indefinitely. The activation of MMS will likely act as a test for AT&T to see just how much pressure its network can sustain at this point, so it would be unwise for it to make any solid predictions about when it’ll be able to offer tethering until those results are in.
Check out TUAW’s post for the full-length press release from Mays.
Переслать - Movie Set to Premiere on iPhone and iPod Touch
Want to premiere a feature film starring some A-list Hollywood celebs? There’s an app for that. Or at least there will be, come Sept. 21. That’s the day Berlin Film Festival hit “Rage” premieres on the iPhone and iPod touch, where it will appear before satellite, DVD or online.
“Rage” is written and directed by British filmmaker Sally Potter, and is an episodic tale of a behind-the-scenes look at a New York fashion show. It’s shot to look like a schoolboy is recording events with his mobile phone over a seven-day period. The movie will be released in seven episodes, downloadable via a free application for the iPhone and iPod touch, and be available starting Sept. 21.
In case it takes star power to sway you, “Rage” boasts quite the cast list. Dame Judi Dench takes part, as does Jude Law. Other stars taking part include Steve Buscemi, Eddie Izzard and John Leguizamo. Nothing to sneeze at for something that’s going to be competing with fart simulators and novelty noisemaker applications.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, following the app’s release on the iPhone platform, “Rage” will debut on DVD in the U.S. on September 22, on satellite in the UK on Sept. 24, and online via Babelgum (who is also behind the iPhone app) on Sept. 28.
Of course, in this case, the iPhone’s preferential treatment is due largely to the nature of the film in question. It makes sense to premiere a film shot to look like it was made with a mobile device on a mobile device. But could this be the beginning of a new distribution model for filmed media?
TV and film already have launch day access to the mobile market, of course, via iTunes sales. But there’s a new breed of content that falls between that and YouTube-type independent productions. Xbox’s “The Guild” is a good example. These kinds of programs would benefit from a separate, app-based distribution model, taking advantage of iPhone OS 3.0’s new in-app purchasing feature to charge per episode. That way, they don’t necessarily need the backing of a major distribution partner, and they can provide show context, cast and crew information all from the same place users get their content.
Whether or not you’re a fan of Dame Judi or Mr. Law, and regardless of whether you care about New York’s fashion scene, be sure to check out the free premiere of “Rage” when it comes out in a couple weeks. At the very least, you’ll be witness to an ambitious failed experiment. At best, you’ll be watching the start of something new.
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