| rss2email.ru | На что подписаться? | Управление подпиской |
 |  The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) http://www.tuaw.com рекомендовать друзьям >> |
- What will they think of next? A real keyboard for the iPhone
Filed under: Accessories, Hardware, Peripherals, Odds and ends, iPhone
If there's one gripe I hear about the iPhone, it's that it doesn't have a "real keyboard." Sure, you can tap with one or two fingers (or thumbs) pretty quickly on the virtual keyboard, but it just doesn't have that nice tactile feedback that you get with, say, a BlackBerry keyboard.
Mobile Mechatronics, the same people who are bringing you the Blur Tripod mentioned on TUAW earlier today, will be officially announcing their iTwinge snap-on keyboard for the iPhone tomorrow. This is a cool little unit, at a price of US$29.99, that is likely to be very popular with the BlackBerry set. The iTwinge snaps onto the bottom of the iPhone, then allows you to use the keyboard for thumb or finger typing into any iPhone app that would normally use the virtual keyboard.
While you wouldn't want to keep the keyboard attached to your iPhone all the time -- it covers up almost half of the screen -- it would be perfect for those situations where you aren't near a laptop or desktop computer but still want to be productive. I'd love to have one of these to use with our blogging system so I could blog and edit from anywhere.
Mobile Mechatronics has begun taking pre-orders for the iTwinge, with shipping expected to begin on November 19th. I just wonder if the name has something to do with carpal tunnel syndrome or "BlackBerry Thumb" that you can get from overusing thumb keyboards...TUAWWhat will they think of next? A real keyboard for the iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 16 Sep 2009 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Sponsored Topics: iPhone - Apple - TUAW - Handhelds - Smartphones
Переслать - New 'Pub Finder' app helps you find a Guinness
Filed under: Software, iPhone, iPod nano, App Review
Some of us here at TUAW have been known to hoist a pint or two of a frosty beverage now and again. When doing so there's quite a few selections from which to choose to satisfy that urge for something cold and refreshing. One choice often made by me personally is Guinness. But what if I want a Guinness after a long day but can't figure out where to go and get one? Fortunately, there's an app for that: the Guinness Pub Finder.
To commemorate the 250th anniversary of Guinness on September 24th they have created a new iPhone and iPod Touch app that will, according to the company, allow "consumers of legal drinking age across the US (to) join the celebration and more easily raise a toast with friends in the future." Which, of course, sounds great unless you happen to live in Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky, Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas or West Virginia where the app is forbidden by law from working. Yeah, I don't get it either.
Even if you can use this app for its intended purpose, it actually isn't just about helping you find a drink, although it does do that pretty well. Here's a breakdown of its main features:
o. Locate a Pint - uses GPS to locate the consumer and the pubs serving Guinness nearest to their current location. It then provides name, address and telephone number of the pub chosen, access to directions, and an email setup to invite friends to join.
o. Know Your Pint - provides a tutorial on the 6 Steps to Creating the Perfect Pint, and also includes a ruler that can be used to measure your pint's head.
o. Fun Extras - includes animated screensavers, a countdown clock to the "Arthur's Day" celebrations and a live feed of the latest news regarding the Guinness 250th Anniversary celebration
o. Responsible Drinking - Provides consumers with the DRINKiQ resource which shares important facts about alcohol to aid responsible choices.
The app is US$1.99 in the iTunes store and its available now.TUAWNew 'Pub Finder' app helps you find a Guinness originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 16 Sep 2009 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | Comments
Sponsored Topics: iPhone - IpodTouch - Apple - IpodNano - TUAWПереслать - iPhone photo news: tripods and water drop lenses
Filed under: Accessories, Hardware, Peripherals, Odds and ends, iPhone
The iPhone has made photography fun for me again. I frankly hated the cameras I had in some of my other, older phones, and I don't like carrying around my big Canon digicam all the time, so having a fairly capable camera in my pocket has opened up my photo-taking horizons again.
When I got the 3GS this summer, one of my first tests was to take some macro pictures using the camera. Sure, the 3GS is better at macro photos than the original or 3G models, but it still isn't a "real" macro camera. What if I wanted to take close up pictures of a tiny insect or a detail of a flower stamen?
The Apple Press has a great little tutorial today on how to take better macro photos with the iPhone using alternative lenses. I'll leave reading the post as an exercise for our readers, but let it suffice to say that you can do a lot of really cool macro shots with an iPhone by putting a small drop of water onto the lens. The Apple Press also provides a link to Amazon for an inexpensive magnifier that can fit in your wallet, perfect for those who are a bit queasy about putting even a drop of agua on their iPhones.
Meanwhile, the geniuses at Mobile Mechatronics are now selling an inexpensive product designed to help you take better photos with your iPhone. The Blur Tripod ($US14.99) consists of an iPhone tripod adapter, a mini tripod, and an upcoming companion app called Blur Software that provides an adjustable delay to your iPhotography so that all vibrations in the iPhone / tripod combo are damped out before the photo is snapped. The app is going through the labyrinthine approval process right now, and will hopefully be approved by Apple in the near future.
In the meantime, I'm going to go out and take some more pictures and video with my iPhone. What's your biggest wish for iPhone photography? A telephoto lens? A flash? Leave your comments below.
TUAWiPhone photo news: tripods and water drop lenses originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 16 Sep 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Sponsored Topics: iPhone - Apple - TUAW - Unofficial Apple Weblog - PhotographyПереслать - Ask TUAW: Making contact sheets, adjusting multiple files' properties, using network locations, and more
Filed under: Features, Troubleshooting, Ask TUAW
Welcome back to Ask TUAW, our weekly Mac troubleshooting Q&A column. This week we've got questions about making photo contact sheets, adjusting properties for multiple files at the same time in the Finder, automatically managing settings based on location, changing the spell check language in iWork and more.
As always, your suggestions and questions are welcome. Questions for next week should be left in the comments. When asking a question please include which machine you're running and which version of Mac OS X (we'll assume you're running Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify). And now, on to the questions.TUAWAsk TUAW: Making contact sheets, adjusting multiple files' properties, using network locations, and more originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 16 Sep 2009 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Переслать - Revised AIM app for iPhone hooks into new Lifestream service
Filed under: Internet Tools, iPhone
There's a first time for everything: while the updated premium version of AOL Instant Messenger for the iPhone [iTunes link] was scheduled to arrive later this month, CNET reported that it actually went through the approval process early (no!) and as such it represents the first of the AIM clients to support the new AIM Lifestream multi-service status update capability.
If you check out the landing page for the service at lifestream.aim.com, you'll be able to update and monitor your posts and pictures on Delicious, Digg, YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, and Twitter alongside your AIM status (and with your AIM buddies in the mix). The Mac and Windows clients for the service are expected on 9/22; it's not known yet when the Lifestream goodness will make its way to the free & ad-supported AIM client for iPhone.
Although you can certainly handle multiple social services from several Mac apps (EventBox, Tweetdeck, MoodBlast), and the iPhone has multi-chat tools like Nimbuzz and Beejive, having the flow of statuses pouring in for AIM users will up the ante considerably. We'll keep an eye out for the official Lifestream launch next week.
Forgot to mention: Can we please, please have an AIM client for iPhone that supports group chat? If we're going to pony up $2.99 for the premium AOL client or even more for Beejive, it should have this bit of functionality, don't you think?
[via DLS]
Note: AOL is the parent company of Weblogs, Inc. and TUAW.TUAWRevised AIM app for iPhone hooks into new Lifestream service originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 16 Sep 2009 09:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Sponsored Topics: iPhone - Facebook - AIM Lifestream - AOL Instant Messenger - AppleПереслать - Mouse steals cheese, iPhone 3.1 jailbreak released
Filed under: iPhone, iPod touch, Jailbreak/pwnage
The legendary Dev-Team has done it again. It just released the new version of the Pwnage Tool, a desktop application that's used to create custom firmware packages to jailbreak iPhones and iPod touches.
Jailbreaking is the act of modifying the official firmware in order to run applications not approved by Apple. Chief among those applications, at least for the iPhone crowd, is the SIM unlock that allows the phone to be used on unofficial cell phone service providers.
The Dev-Team has found holes in previous versions of the iPhone OS that allow this code modification and has developed tools to make exploitation easier for the average user to accomplish. Once implemented, the jailbreak process installs an app that acts an unofficial App Store of sorts. The iPhone or iPod touch user can browse and install games, utilities, themes, and general applications. Cydia, one of these installer apps, even has a store with applications for sale.
Traditionally, when Apple releases a new iPhone OS version, that software upgrade breaks any jailbreak and SIM unlock present on the device. And so, you end up with the cat-and-mouse game that Steve Jobs alluded to shortly after the first firmware loophole was exploited and the original iPhone was unlocked.
Well, the mouse has stolen the cheese once again, and the Pwnage Tool released today will jailbreak the latest firmware, version 3.1.*
The big asterisk at the end of that previous sentence is that the Tool will only work on about half of the devices that use the iPhone OS -- only the original iPhone, original iPod touch, and iPhone 3G. The iPod touch line just released, as well as the 2nd generation iPod touch and the iPhone 3GS, cannot be jailbroken at this time. That means if you've already upgraded to 3.1 on your 3GS, you still won't be able to SIM unlock it as of the time of this post.
So, if you want to SIM unlock your iPhone 3G or the original model, Pwnage Tool 3.1 should do the trick. On the 3G, you'll need to use Icy or Cydia to also install the ultrasn0w app that actually performs the software unlock; however the original iPhone should be unlocked without this additional step.
You will need a Mac to run Pwnage Tool 3.1, but a Windows version is expected in the near future. Also expected soon is redsn0w, for both Mac and Windows, that further simplifies the jailbreak process by avoiding the need to create a custom firmware package.
Keep in mind, if you've been waiting for a jailbreak solution before upgrading to the latest firmware, many users have had fairly substantial issues with iPhone 3.1. My fellow TUAW blogger, Josh Carr, has reported that lots of iPhones and iPod touches are working poorly after upgrading. You may wish to hold off and stick with 3.0 or 3.0.1 until a solution is found, either by Apple or some other group of smart people.
But, if you're so inclined, you may find links to download Pwnage Tool 3.1 on the Dev-Team's official blog. Make sure to read the instructions thoroughly, and take heed of all of the warnings. They are there for a reason.TUAWMouse steals cheese, iPhone 3.1 jailbreak released originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 15 Sep 2009 23:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Sponsored Topics: iPhone - AppStore - Steve Jobs - Apple - iPhone OSПереслать - Bruce Sewell to join Apple as General Counsel & senior vice president
Filed under: Apple Corporate
Apple has a new General Counsel and senior vice president on its executive team. Bruce Sewell, who held the same position at Intel Corporation, will be joining Apple in place of Daniel Cooperman. Cooperman, who has been General Counsel and senior vice president of Legal and Government Affairs for the past two years, is retiring at the end of September.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs was quoted in a press release as saying "We are thrilled to have Bruce join our executive team, and wish Dan a very happy retirement. With Bruce's extensive experience in litigation, securities and intellectual property, we expect this to be a seamless transition."
Sewell has been responsible for leading Intel's legal, corporate affairs, and corporate social responsibility programs, managing a team of attorneys and policy professionals located throughout the world. In his new role at Apple, Sewell and his team will defend Apple against attacks on the company's intellectual property. We'd like to give Mr. Sewell one big piece of advice for his new job -- read up on the Psystar case as soon as you can.TUAWBruce Sewell to join Apple as General Counsel & senior vice president originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 15 Sep 2009 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Sponsored Topics: Steve Jobs - Apple - Intel Corporation - Daniel Cooperman - Unofficial Apple WeblogПереслать - iPhone 3.1 problems flood our tip box
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Bugs/Recalls, Bad Apple, iPhone
In the last week, we have had a constant barrage of iPhone issues break through the lines... so much so that we feel it is our duty to inform the two of you who haven't updated what you could experience by updating to version 3.1 of the iPhone OS. This is no small problem, as you can read from the discussions on Apple's website here, here, here, and here.
The first two links are where we're getting the majority of our tips -- random shutdowns and very poor battery life. The second two, bricked phones and general slowness are still worth a mention -- even prompting our own Erica Sadun to do a live walk-through for debrickifying iPhones. We received a lot of praise for her help in that session and we'd encourage you to go back and read through the chat if you're experiencing trouble with a bricked iPhone.
I've spent quite some time reading the hundreds of posts about the "mysterious random shutdowns" and have determined that it really is what it is. As of this writing, there have been 409 posts and 28 pages in that discussion -- I've seen very little repeats and no real solutions. Some people have said that they've gone to Apple and received replacement phones because of this issue but for those of us who have out-of-warranty phones, Apple has merely said "It's $199 for a replacement." I have to agree with our tipsters -- this needs to be addressed. These people simply did not break their phones, it's a well-documented issue which we, as consumers, shouldn't have to pay to fix.
Battery life is a completely different debacle. I cannot seem to find a trend in the discussions at all. Some people claim to have removed certain apps, some claim that MobileMe sync is the culprit -- all of them agree that there is an issue with 3.1 and that battery life shouldn't dramatically decrease overnight. I'd really love to get into one of these phones and replace the battery to see what happens because the hardware guy in me says that it's not impossible. However, deductive reasoning says that there's something in the software. Whether there's a memory leak in 3.1 itself, or some apps that we're running aren't as "compatible" as they should be... we need to see another update soon to help alleviate the issues with version 3.1 of the iPhone OS.
Please feel free to use our comment system to express your concern, anger, resentment... whatever. Try to be helpful if you've come across a solution and be nice if you're not having these problems. Until Apple issues a fix or acknowledges the problem at all, just hope that you're still in-warranty.
TUAWiPhone 3.1 problems flood our tip box originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 15 Sep 2009 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Sponsored Topics: IPhone - Apple - Unofficial Apple Weblog - TUAW - Operating systemПереслать - Default Folder X adds Snow Leopard Support
Filed under: Software Update, Leopard
One of my favorite little utilities has been updated to fully support Mac OS X 10.6.1. Default Folder X makes it easy to navigate when both saving and opening files, and it has saved me constant hours of prowling around for folders where I save and open stuff. It's been particularly valuable when I'm working on a new book, because I have graphics and text strewn all over the place in folders on multiple disks.
This new update also adds improved capabilities in Mac OS 10.4 and 10.5. In Snow Leopard I saw some nasty strange screen drawing anomalies, and that is now fixed with this most recent version. The developers also say there are improvements when using Final Cut Pro, QuickTime Player 7, and other applications that export files using QuickTime.
You can try the utility for free for 30 days. Otherwise it is US $34.95, or $14.95 for users of versions bought before June 1, 2007.
It's nice to see this utility updated, and while I love it dearly, it would have been so nice if more of this functionality had been built in to OS X natively. Until then, Default Folder X is a great solution for opening and saving files in a completely quick and sane manner.TUAWDefault Folder X adds Snow Leopard Support originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 15 Sep 2009 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Sponsored Topics: Mac OS X - Snow Leopard - Apple - Operating system - Final Cut ProПереслать - Is the future of Mac...the iPhone?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, OS, Rumors, Leopard, Developer, iPhone, iPod touch, Snow Leopard
I was chatting with my TUAW colleagues this morning about Mac versus iPhone programming. And as per usual with these conversations, we veered in the direction of unfettered speculation. It's an occupational hazard.
As someone who regularly develops on both platforms, I declared that the iPhone represents the future of Mac programming. The iPhone, I
positedstated, offers a great new platform without the need to be fully backwards compatible like the Mac. Our own Victor Agreda challenged me to back up that position. After a bit of time and thought, I decided to do so in this post.My key point is this: Apple's engineers have learned a lot of important design lessons during the history of OS X. When the iPhone debuted, it gave those engineers the chance to rebuild an OS and an API from the ground up. Those engineers could craft a platform and its libraries that built on the Mac's successes without dragging along its less fortunate design decisions. Yes, there were some lemon frameworks that initially made the grade, but over time, Apple has reduced their number.
Even now, Apple continues its iPhone design process, adding new frameworks and APIs at a prodigious rate. The iPhone OS remains a work in progress, developing in ways and directions that the initial release two years ago could not have anticipated. And Apple does this, knowing fully that the closed platform allows them a great deal of design freedom that would not have been possible on the open Macintosh.
In contrast, consider in how many ways the Mac's successful history drags the platform down. A commitment to existing APIs and historical design practices show up in nearly every Mac development project. The simple elegance of the iPhone's built-from-the-start-as-Objective-C 2.0-based API is largely missing from Cocoa libraries.Whether you're working with buttons, menus or simple text views, the iPhone development approach simply works better: beautiful 2.0-style properties, consistent API design, better-thought-out object inheritance trees, and so forth. With the iPhone, you see a great new platform evolving without the need to be fully backwards compatible
Snow Leopard, with its minimal API changes has bought the Macintosh a few years of stability. But I think it's time for Apple to rethink the platform as a whole, re-imagining its API through the lens of current iPhone OS development. While Snow Leopard offers Apple the room to stay still for now, I can see Apple moving forward in a separate engineering effort to Cocoa Touch Mac, a hypothetical cross-platform OS that supports general development on iPhone and future Mac devices like my imaginary snow-princess-rainbow-pony-iTablet.
The ghost of NeXT-past, as TUAW-colleague Joachim Bean puts it, still haunts us. It's time to exorcise the unhelpful bits of that pervasive spirit and usher in the new age of the iPhone and its API design examples. Mac OS X is, and has been, a superb development platform. What I'm suggesting is that iPhone OS might just be a better one.
TUAWIs the future of Mac...the iPhone? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | Comments
Sponsored Topics: iPhone - Apple - Unofficial Apple Weblog - Snow Leopard - iPhone OSПереслать - iPhone usage metric for Flickr drops big time
Filed under: Hardware, Multimedia, Software, Internet, Internet Tools, iPhone
We've posted before how popular the iPhone is as a camera on Flickr, with people uploading tons of photos, both shot by and straight from the iPhone. But now, The Next Web has covered a huge drop in photos referencing the iPhone over on the popular photo sharing site. The suspected culprit? Flickr themselves.
TNW suggests that the problem is the Flickr iPhone application, which will upload pictures straight to the service -- but not include metadata information like the fact that the pictures were taken with the iPhone. Still, even they sound a little skeptical: not all of that drop can be attributed to just the Flickr app's shortcomings. They also suggest that the iPhone is wearing out its welcome -- lots of people jumped to use it as a camera when the 3GS introduced a better lens and the video capability, and now in day-to-day use, they're not using it as much. Other commenters to the post suggest that the vastly improved Facebook app may be eating away at the use of the built-in Camera app.
I know that my photo habits for the phone haven't changed -- I use the iPhone quite a bit to take pictures, but looking at my own usage, I don't use Flickr nearly as much these days, as I use services like Twitpic and other sites built up directly around the iPhone. A drop in usage on Flickr doesn't mean people aren't using their iPhones to take snapshots -- they could just be sending their photos and media somewhere else.
Update: One of our commenters, echoed by our old friend & past colleague Barb Dybwad at Mashable, notes that Apple's change to the EXIF data recording for iPhone photos (breaking out the different iPhone models to indicate which specific phone took the picture) may be partly responsible for the drop.TUAWiPhone usage metric for Flickr drops big time originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 15 Sep 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Sponsored Topics: IPhone - Facebook - Flickr iPhone - Flickr - AppleПереслать
Секу.ру - ваш персональный интернет-шпион. Узнайте, что пишут про вас!
| rss2email.ru | отписаться: http://www.rss2email.ru/unsubscribe.asp?c=6894&u=24004&r=484673635 управлять всей подпиской: http://www.rss2email.ru/manage.asp |
