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The Bookmark App - Audiobooks finally done right
Filed under: iPhone, iPod touch, App Review
The Bookmark app [iTunes Link] has solved a number of problems I've always suffered while listening to audiobooks on an iPhone. It isn't pefect yet, but what is currently in the app store is the best implementation of digital audiobook listening I've found. It's earned a place on my home page and that alone is quite a recommendation. I'll get to a play-by-play in a bit, but first a bit of context is in order.

I have always been a fan of audiobooks. Long before the inception of the iPod, I was a constant Books on Tape customer. I'd choose a book and in a few days, receive a sizable box filled with anywhere from two to over forty cassette tapes. It was worth it to me to go through all the hassle of keeping the tapes in order and carrying a stack of them with me to play on a portable cassette player when I wasn't listening in my car.

When the iPod came out, I found Audible.com and life became much easier. I always carried at least a dozen books with me on my iPod Classic. The books usually downloaded in one or two big files making a book easy to manage. A few years later, Audible.com started embedding chapter markers in their books so jumping to a particular chapter was a snap, but I always had a problem with the iPod losing my place in a book. It could have been due to syncing, or being knocked around, but it was constant and always annoying.

When I bought my iPhone, I found the way the iPod module handled audiobooks had changed. Instead of downloading a few big files, what wound up in the library was a separate file for each chapter. So, for example, Fool by Christopher Moore, which my iPod Classic saw as one file with twenty-six chapters appeared to be twenty-six files on the iPhone. That would have been fine, except for the fact that the iPhone was no better than my iPod Classic in losing my place seemingly at random. Worse, I never knew which file I was on when my place got lost.

Read on to see how Bookmark has solved this dilemma for me.

Continue reading The Bookmark App - Audiobooks finally done right
TUAW The Bookmark App - Audiobooks finally done right originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 12 Sep 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sponsored Topics: iPhone - Apple - IpodTouch - App Store - IPod Classic
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PowerCurl: A quirky way to wrap up your MagSafe Power Adapter
Filed under: Accessories, Odds and ends, Macbook Pro, MacBook, MacBook Air, iPod nano
quirky is a design firm with a difference. Rather than pay a brain trust to sit around and think up product ideas, they let average Anns and Andys submit designs that are then refined and named by a community of site visitors. When designs are ready for production, quirky sets a threshold number of units to be sold to be profitable, and once that number of orders comes in, they send the design off for manufacturing.

Plato said "...the true creator is necessity, who is the mother of our invention." In this case quirky community member Jeff Scholen was driven not only by the need to neatly wrap up the thin power cable and thick AC line going into his Apple MagSafe Power Adapter, but also keep the transformer "box" off of the floor or desk and give it a way to stay cool.

In less than 24 hours, the design was finalized through input from Apple fans worldwide and the PowerCurl (US$9.99) was ready to roll. It comes in "quirky orange" only, but has two sizes to match the 60W and 85W MagSafe Power Adapters.

The quirky community has also come up with a case design for the new iPod nano that not only protects that shiny finish, but acts as a stand and video handgrip as well. The Kickster (US$14.35) is awaiting your commitment to purchase before it moves into production.
TUAW PowerCurl: A quirky way to wrap up your MagSafe Power Adapter originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 12 Sep 2009 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sponsored Topics: Apple - IpodNano - MacBook Air - TUAW - Unofficial Apple Weblog
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iPhone OS 3.1 anti-phishing works; you just need to set it up properly
Filed under: OS, Software, iPhone
Remember hearing that one of the new features of iPhone OS 3.1 was an anti-phishing capability for Safari? Jim Dalrymple over at The Loop wondered if it was working properly, and asked Apple what was going on. The response?
"Safari's anti-phishing database is downloaded while the user charges their phone in order to protect battery life and ensure there aren't any additional data fees," Apple spokesman, Bill Evans, told The Loop. "After updating to iPhone OS 3.1 the user should launch Safari, connect to a Wi-Fi network and charge their iPhone with the screen off. For most users this process should happen automatically when they charge their phone."
What this apparently does is allows Safari to completely download the anti-phishing database, which is necessary before the feature will work. It also appears that you'll need to update the database on occasion in the same way -- charge your iPhone with Safari up and the screen off.

As always, TUAW urges you to practice safe computing, so enabling anti-phishing in this odd Apple-approved manner is highly recommended.

[Thanks to LoopInsight.com for digging into this]
TUAW iPhone OS 3.1 anti-phishing works; you just need to set it up properly originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 12 Sep 2009 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sponsored Topics: iPhone - Safari - Apple - TUAW - Unofficial Apple Weblog
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We've got a sub for that...
Filed under: Humor, Odds and ends, Apple
In the UK, iPhone and iPod touch users who are used to hearing Apple's "there's an app for that" tagline in advertisements are now doing a double-take when they go to their nearby Subway sandwich shop.

Sharp-eyed TUAW reader Welby McRoberts was accompanying some buddies to Subway for lunch when he noticed that things seemed a little too familiar. As you can see in the photos from Welby's blog that are also in the gallery below, Subway UK is using the similar phrase "We've got a sub for that" in their in-store signage and on employee shirts.

McRoberts notes that "It appears that subway are imitating Apple's "there's an app for that". It turns out that this campaign has been done by McCann Erickson and is a 'light-hearted' campaign complete with UK TV adverts. The phrase Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery comes to mind."

There's no word on whether this campaign will migrate to any of the other 90 countries with Subway franchisees, or if Apple is going to refer to the fabled iTablet as a "Five-Hundred Dollar Foot Long." Chuck and the CIA should be very happy with this new campaign!

Gallery: We've got a sub for that
TUAW We've got a sub for that... originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 10 Sep 2009 14:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sponsored Topics: iPhone - IpodTouch - Apple - TUAW - Unofficial Apple Weblog
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iTunes has a fan page on Facebook
Filed under: Odds and ends, iTunes

Yeah, like everyone else, iTunes has fan page on Facebook. If you can stomach the process, you can even get 20 songs for free by becoming a fan. The process is a bit clunky, however, which seems to be par for the course on Facebook. First, you become a fan. Then, you'll need to allow the "Free On iTunes" app to get access to your profile (typical of a Facebook app, of course). Then, you click a link that says "redeem now" -- a link which took me to a blank page.

After digging back into the fan page again, I found that button again, and clicked it again. This time I got the right page, but iTunes never woke up (that is, the store link didn't work). Then I tried yet again to "redeem now" and voila! A page warning that I'd already done all this appeared. Luckily there was a redemption code on this page, and the "redeem now" button finally worked. I am now downloading iTunes 9, iPhone OS 3.1 and 20 songs by indie artists.

If you can suffer the mess that is Facebook, you can get some free tunes.

Gallery: iTunes on Facebook

TUAW iTunes has a fan page on Facebook originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 09 Sep 2009 17:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sponsored Topics: IPhone - Apple - TUAW - Facebook - ITunes
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