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Widget Watch: stay on top with Reminder
Filed under: Widget Watch
Gravity Applications recently updated their Reminder widget, and I'm finding it quite useful. Now that my Dashboard isn't taking eons to load -- thanks to Snow Leopard -- it's really nice to be able to pop it up and with a few clicks set an iCal alarm for 5 minutes, an hour, a week, whatever I need a quick beep for that doesn't require a full event edit. It's simple, single-purpose and very effective.

You may know Gravity Apps from past coverage on TUAW, or for some of their innovative software projects such as Tags, Searchlight and SofaControl. These guys have been doing a great job providing software tools to meet a wide range of needs, and have proven to be eager and determined developers. The polish they push for on every application apparently shows up in their Dashboard widgets as well.
TUAW Widget Watch: stay on top with Reminder originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 06 Sep 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sponsored Topics: Snow Leopard - TUAW - Operating system - Dashboard - Unofficial Apple Weblog
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Snow Leopard Services in practice: Amazon S3 uploader
Filed under: Cool tools, Snow Leopard
I stumbled upon a great example of the Snow Leopard Services that I've been drooling over. The S3 Upload Service by August Lilleaas is available as a workflow which can be opened in Automator, so you can examine its inner workings. It uses AppleScript and Ruby, easily passed back and forth thanks to Automator's building-block-style workflow. It lets you upload a publicly-accessible file to an S3 bucket, and copies the URL into your clipboard upon successful upload.

The workflow requires that you at least have RubyGems installed, and have an Amazon S3 account set up, but it will handle the rest. It asks for your S3 credentials with an AppleScript popup, which has the unfortunate side effect of not being able to be forced to the front very easily and tends to get lost behind other windows. There are workarounds to that, but no way to keep it on top once it's up. It looks possible to build custom nibs for your services, so I might play around with making a general-purpose utility panel popup to fill the void in my own projects.

In the process of rolling my own Services in Snow Leopard, I've definitely found some limitations, but I'm having fun working around them. This one is a great example of passing results -- returned from different languages -- and processing them, all within Automator. It's not super-polished -- your mileage may vary -- but a big thanks to August for putting it out there for the rest of us to play with!
TUAW Snow Leopard Services in practice: Amazon S3 uploader originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 06 Sep 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sponsored Topics: Snow Leopard - Apple - AppleScript - Ruby - Amazon S3
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Nike+ iPod equals a weight loss success formula
Filed under: Accessories, iPod Family
(As a follow up to Tim Wasson's 'An Apple a Day' fitness plan, I thought I'd share my experience on how the Nike+ iPod kit helped me lose weight.)

It's high noon in Los Angeles on a late May Sunday. But this isn't your typical Sunday. You see, I'm about to finish my first ever marathon. As I make my way toward the finish line, I hear the roar of thousands of spectators cheering me on. For those who have yet to experience this, I tell them that there's no other feeling like it -- one where thousands of people, who know nothing about you, are willing you to finish the final meters of a 26.2 mile race. As I make my way toward finish line, I think of everything that led up to this moment, and how much running has changed my life.

But I don't think I'd have made it this far had it not been for the Nike+ iPod kit; for by changing the running experience, it's also changed my feelings about running.
Continue reading Nike+ iPod equals a weight loss success formula
TUAW Nike+ iPod equals a weight loss success formula originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 06 Sep 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sponsored Topics: Apple - IPod - TUAW - Weight loss - Nike+iPod
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Catch a satellite on your iPhone this weekend
Filed under: Odds and ends, iPhone, Holidays, App Store, App Review
As summer draws to a close for much of the northern hemisphere, try to get outside for some (hopefully) clear skies and a little star gazing.

We've taken a good look at many of the star gazing apps available for the Mac and the iPhone, and I thought it would be fun to try the 'next step', an iPhone app that finds passing satellites and the International Space Station. There are a lot of websites that give you this information, but having it in an app is even nicer.

I've just tried Satellite Visibility [iTunes link], a US$2.99 app that does the job and worked for me the first time out. You tell the app where you are, or let the phone GPS determine your location. You then get a list of all the brighter manmade objects hurtling around the earth that you can see over the next couple days.

If you click on one, you get detailed info on when it appears, when it falls into the earth's shadow, and what direction to look. In addition, you get little sky maps that show where the object will be in a graphic format.

It was partly cloudy here in Arizona last night, but I did locate the International Space Station as it made about a 1 minute appearance in the southern skies before it went behind a cloud bank.

The data for the app comes from a useful website called Heavens Above which has the information that this iPhone app picks up and uses.

The charts are helpful, but the trail of the satellite against the sky is sometimes subtle on the small iPhone screen. Even though I had my GPS radio on, each time I used the app it turned that option off. It does retain your last location, but I think it should just grab the info and not change my settings.

There are other similar apps available for the iPhone, some more expensive; others are free but missing some features that Satellite Visibility has. I think this app has a nice mix for the money.

If all you want is info for passes of the International Space Station, the developer has a US$1.99 app [iTunes app] that skips all the other satellite data.

I think hunting satellites is fun on a nice clear night, so here's a fresh holiday weekend activity you might enjoy.

Click below for a few screen shots:

Gallery: Satellite Visibility
TUAW Catch a satellite on your iPhone this weekend originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 05 Sep 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sponsored Topics: iPhone - appstore - Apple - TUAW - International Space Station
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