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Failure is not an option: the official NASA iPhone app is here
Filed under: iPhone, iPod touch, App Review
There are a lot of space geeks out there. You know the type; they wake up in the early hours of the morning to watch launch coverage or live feeds from the International Space Station, they follow NASA astronauts on Twitter, and they're married to people in the space biz. Oh, wait -- that's me!

Yeah, I'm a bona-fide space geek and proud of it, so I was thrilled to hear that the official NASA iPhone app [iTunes Link] is now available free of charge. The app was created by the New Media Team at NASA Ames Research Center, and for their first app it's surprisingly robust, bug-free and full of features.

The front screen of the app provides a window into current and future NASA missions. Along the bottom of the display are buttons for missions, images, videos, and updates. The updates are fairly current -- there were 11 posts about various Earth and space missions today alone -- and often include links to videos.

I found that the app worked best when I was downloading the videos over Wi-Fi, so be sure to keep that in mind if you're trying to get watch a launch video while on 3G service. Check out the gallery below for screenshots from the app.

Gallery: NASA iPhone App
TUAW Failure is not an option: the official NASA iPhone app is here originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 24 Oct 2009 00:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sponsored Topics: IPhone - IpodTouch - Apple - IPod Classic - TUAW
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Unboxing an Apple employee t-shirt
Filed under: Apple Corporate, Odds and ends
A little while back we posted about the unboxing of an Apple job offer, and now here's another unboxing having to do with becoming an Apple employee -- Mac Rumors has shots up of an unboxing of one of the t-shirt giftboxes recently given to AppleCare call center staff, and once again, even in something that the public was never really supposed to see, this company shows just how much care and attention they put into their design. From the way the t-shirt's folded, with the stark three word design sitting perfectly centered, to the embossed gift note and company stickers, clearly this is a company that believes presentation is important.

In fact, it almost makes me want to go over to Apple's Jobs site and start looking for myself. Apple, any interest in hiring a witty, sarcastic and cynical blogger? I'll work for peanuts!
TUAW Unboxing an Apple employee t-shirt originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 23 Oct 2009 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Poll: What do you use your Mac mini for?
Filed under: Surveys and Polls, Mac mini
Here at TUAW, as you probably know, we really love the Mac mini. Some of us have a mini hooked up to our TV, some are used as servers, and some are used as great desktop computers (including mine).

We wanted to ask you what exactly you use your Mac mini for, so we came up with this in-depth poll. There are several choices, so let us know how you use your Mac mini.

If your favorite use for a Mac mini isn't listed in the poll, you can also leave a comment below and tell us how you use your mini.

View Poll
TUAW Poll: What do you use your Mac mini for? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 23 Oct 2009 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sponsored Topics: MacMini - TUAW - Apple - Television - Desktop computer
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NaNoWriMo writers: Storyist has some hot deals for you, too
Filed under: Software, Odds and ends, Deals
In my continuing campaign to get as many Apple fans out there as possible to take part in National Novel Writing Month, I'm always looking for deals on writing software. Earlier in the week, I reported on a deal that Scrivener is providing for NaNoWriMo participants. Well, not to be left out of the fun, Storyist Software also has some deals set up for would-be novelists.

If you're in the Bay Area, you might want to take part in NaNoWriMo's Night of Writing Dangerously on Sunday, November 22, 2009 from 5 to 11 PM in the Julia Morgan Ballroom at the Merchant's Exchange Building in San Francisco. Every writer who participates in this fundraising event gets a free copy of Storyist 2 from Storyist Software, and two top fundraisers for the event will each receive an Amazon Kindle and a $50 gift card from Storyist.

Storyist always provides a 30-day free trial version of their namesake software, but this time they'll give you a temporary license that lasts through the first week of December if you contact the company from their NaNoWriMo page. In addition, if you decide to purchase the software at any point during NaNoWriMo, just use the coupon code NANOWRIMO at checkout and you'll receive 25% off of the download-only version (US$59.00) or the boxed edition (US$79.00).

Now you have your choice of two great writing tools to use during NaNoWriMo, so you have no excuse not to sign up for the creative writing event of the year and churn out that novel you've always been meaning to write. Get signed up today!
TUAW NaNoWriMo writers: Storyist has some hot deals for you, too originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sponsored Topics: National Novel Writing Month - San Francisco - Writers Resources - Arts - Amazon Kindle
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Google Chrome released for Mac
Filed under: Software, Internet, Internet Tools
Google has released an official developer preview of Google Chrome for the Mac. Rather than digging through nightly development builds, you can download the developer preview of the WebKit-based browser at Google's official webpage.

Chrome sports several features similar to Safari 4 in Snow Leopard, such as sandboxing - each tab runs as its own process, so if one crashes, it doesn't bring down the whole browser. It also sports the "tabs on top" interface present in some builds of the Safari 4 beta released earlier this year. Some people hated tabs on top in Safari, but others eventually got used to it and even missed the feature when it was omitted from the final release of Safari 4; if tabs on top is your thing, then Chrome has you covered.

Chrome supports importing bookmarks, settings, and history from whatever browser you're currently using, so if you're curious to see how it runs on a Mac, go ahead and give it a try. Let us know in the comments if you run into any issues.

[Via Download Squad]
TUAW Google Chrome released for Mac originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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ZFS project for Mac OS X discontinued
Filed under: OS, Open Source, Apple
Is it a forgotten project? A fit of open-source pique? Or is it just that everyone got really busy on other stuff? Looks like Apple has just shut down the ZFS project for Mac OS X. The site for the project on Mac OS Forge reads:

ZFS Project Shutdown
2009-10-23

The ZFS project has been discontinued. The mailing list and repository will also be removed shortly.

It's hinted that this was caused by legal issues surrounding the merger of Sun Microsystems and Oracle, which caused Apple to back away from the next-generation file system technology. After many rumors, including ZFS support that was going to be added in Snow Leopard Server, but that ended up being removed in the final version, it now seems like the saga of ZFS on Mac OS X is ending with a whimper.

[via Daring Fireball]
TUAW ZFS project for Mac OS X discontinued originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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StoneLoops! pulled from App Store
Filed under: Gaming, App Store
StoneLoops! of Jurassica is one of those iPhone gems that everyone needed to try. It was a beautiful port of an existing desktop game and one of the cases where the iPhone version blew its desktop sibling out of the water regarding graphics and playability.

That's why, with a genuine cry of dismay, I read the very sad news from Maciej Biedrzycki, co-founder of Codeminion Development Studios, that StoneLoops! was pulled from the App Store today thanks to complaints from MumboJumbo, creators of rival game Luxor. Charges levied against Codeminion include copyright infringement, "confusing customers," stealing the look and feel of Luxor and their source code.

One of the most ironic facts? Codeminion offered StoneLoops! to MumboJumbo initially. The company declined to pick up the game and did not cite any sort of copyright infringement then.

In addition, the original StoneLoops! desktop game was released three years after the first Luxor game to little fanfare. However, when it came to the iPhone port, StoneLoops! was several months ahead of Luxor. It was enjoying immense popularity when Luxor finally debuted in the App Store in late August. It was only then that MumboJumbo launched its complaint against Codeminion.

Yes, both StoneLoops! and Luxor have similar formats, bonuses and goals, but so does Zuma from PopCap Games. One imagines what would happen to time-management games if PlayFirst decided to go after every Diner Dash clone, for example. There is room for both games on the App Store, and I hope Apple reconsiders its decision. If not, PopCap better gear up for a battle against MumboJumbo should it decide to port Zuma to the iPhone.

Thanks for the tip, dubbs!

[Via AppAdvice]
TUAW StoneLoops! pulled from App Store originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Report: iPod, iPhone to take over growing handheld gaming
Filed under: Apple Corporate, Gaming, iPhone, iPod touch
In a bold report released this week, DFC Intelligence states that if current sales and development trends continue, the iPhone and iPod could surpass both Sony and Nintendo in the fast-growing handheld gaming market in as little as five years.

Now, DFC isn't describing the number of units sold. They expect the Japanese companies to retain that lead. Instead, they expect the iPhone/iPod's growth rate to expand while PSP and DSi sales have plateaued. In other words, DFC predicts that the iPhone and iPod touch will be the only portable gaming devices still seeing significant growth by 2014.

It's interesting because Apple has never paid much attention to gaming... until the most recent press event where they went overboard to promote the iPod touch as a gaming platform. I play games on my iPhone and my original PSP and while it's a different experience, they're both enjoyable.

Of the apps you own, how many are games? If you own either a PSP or a DS plus an iPhone/iPod touch, how would you compare the three platforms?

[Via Electronista]
TUAW Report: iPod, iPhone to take over growing handheld gaming originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sponsored Topics: iPhone - Sony - Nintendo - Apple - IPod Touch
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Steve Ballmer's Windows 7 pitch features MacBook Pro in the background
Filed under: Humor, Cult of Mac, Odds and ends
Talk about embarrassing. Steve Ballmer guest hosted on NBC's Today Show yesterday to talk about the Windows 7 launch. Sadly for Steverino, Matt Lauer talked a lot about Apple and the iPhone. Even worse, sharp eyes noticed an NBC-produced graphic in the background with a Windows 7 logo appearing on the screen of what clearly is a Mac laptop.

You can watch the video here. That's probably not the kind of quality control Microsoft would have liked.

Thanks to Bill for sending this in (no, not Bill Gates)

[via TechCrunch]
TUAW Steve Ballmer's Windows 7 pitch features MacBook Pro in the background originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Huge Apple ads ruffle feathers in Boston
Filed under: Apple Corporate
Last week I was in Boston and drove past the ad pictured at right, as I have done many times. Even though it first went up in 2007, I still think, "Man, that is a big ad."

Boston's Outdoor Advertising Board agrees.

Two years ago, they declared the 13,750 square-foot monstrosity illegal because of its size. Yet it's still in place. Last June, the groups behind the advertising agreed to pay the state $110,000 as a settlement, according to The Boston Globe.

Now, according to the Globe, there's a political backlash. It seems that the settlement was reached with some "help" given to a business person from a campaign aide from Boston Mayor Thomas Menino's office. The same acquaintance reportedly has made annual donations to the Mayor's office since 2005.

The owners argue that the ad promotes sales inside the self-storage business just behind the huge wall, where customers can buy iTunes gift cards.

The ad space first went into use 6 months before Apple opened the flagship retail store on Boylston Street.

[Via iPodNN]

Photo: Yoon S. Byun, The Boston Globe
TUAW Huge Apple ads ruffle feathers in Boston originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sponsored Topics: Boston Globe - Apple - Boston - Boylston Street - List of mayors of Boston
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BookReader for iPhone: You can't judge a book by its cover
Filed under: Software, iPhone, App Review
We did a fairly extensive rundown of eBooks for the iPhone/iPod touch in August; you can take a look back if you're new to the eBook universe for Apple's mobile devices.

BookReader [iTunes Link] , a US$4.99 app for devices running OS 2.21 or higher, has just joined the crowded eBook market -- but it brings little to the table to recommend itself. The app when first run looks beautiful. You are shown a wonderfully rendered bookshelf which looks very similar to the one found in Classics [iTunes Link], but a bit more nicely rendered, showing the spines of books instead of covers in a scrolling list.

Impressive, but now what? I really had no idea since there were no instructions on how to operate the app either in the app, or on the Readdle site. This, as I've often said, is a major downfall of many of the apps in the store. It would be fine if it were an adventure game, but not at all acceptable in something offering utility that you would like to get at quickly.

The only documentation in the app is a cursory explanation of one of three methods of getting content into the app -- connecting via Wi-Fi and WebDAV to your computer in a fairly arcane manner. You connect to an external server and provide an app-created numeric password. From there you can add books to the server folder... or so they say, but they don't go as far as saying how. I added books to the server, and they never showed up in the app. I was left stranded on the Wi-fi access page and didn't know where to go from there. Now I know that I'm missing something minuscule, but that's exactly my point; there wasn't enough given to me to allow me to complete the task.

The second method of acquiring content is through Readdle Storage. You need to set up an account on the Readdle site which gives you a free 512 megabytes; larger amounts of storage are available for purchase. Once you set up an account, it works fine, but unless you know what to do, you may not find it on your own. You can easily add documents to Readdle Storage and they do show up in the app.

Many documents, unfortunately, don't look very attractive. Anything that started as a .pdf document winds up looking like garbage since all the graphics are gone, and the formatting is stripped out. The list of formats that BookReader handles is also lacking. It doesn't understand some very popular formats such as Kindle, MobiPocket and Microsoft Word's .DOC as do other apps such as Stanza [iTunes Link]. DRM is not supported, but that's par for the course in the eReader market.
Continue reading BookReader for iPhone: You can't judge a book by its cover
TUAW BookReader for iPhone: You can't judge a book by its cover originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Win a Square Trade accident-coverage iPhone warranty from TUAW
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Hardware

Two weekends ago, Diet Coke was accidentally spilled onto my MacBook Pro Keyboard. The machine, a Core Duo 15" that was among the first of the Intel Macs rolled out, suddenly didn't work the way it used to. Luckily, damage was restricted only to the keyboard: caps lock, shift, b, h, and num lock didn't function. Not being able to type the word "butt" was a pain in the "utt." While I've since repaired the keyboard -- on my own, thanks to iFixit's instructions -- it made me question, again, the value of an extended warranty. Had the damage been worse, I may have had to get a new machine.

While AppleCare is certainly compelling for many (phone support and timely repairs of manufacturer defects by Apple-authorized technicians, among its values), its defect is that hardware repair coverage is restricted to manufacturer defects. And in my case, even if this had been a new machine still under AppleCare, it wouldn't have been covered. So, if you accidentally drop your iPhone in the toilet (it happens) or if, while looking up your Tiramisu recipe in MacGourmet, you happen to spill Kahlua all over your MacBook, you won't be covered by AppleCare.

While researching third party extended warranties, I stumbled upon Square Trade. In addition to covering manufacturers' defects, Square Trade's warranty covers accidental damage. In effect, it's a warranty with an additional safeguard for dings, drops and drenching.

Although the Square Trade warranty covers accidental damage, consider all your options before proceeding with a purchase -- Is it worth its cost? For example, claims for accidentally damaged items (as opposed to manufacturer defects) require a $50 deductible. In the case of the MacBook and MacBook Pro, this narrows the price gap between AppleCare and the SquareTrade price.
Continue reading Win a Square Trade accident-coverage iPhone warranty from TUAW
TUAW Win a Square Trade accident-coverage iPhone warranty from TUAW originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Friday Favorite: OmniDiskSweeper helps you track down where all your disk space went
Filed under: Cool tools, Friday Favorite

"Where did all my disk space all go?"

When I was in college, each student was allotted 4 megabytes ('mega' is not a typo) of disk space for both email and files. Granted, this was back in the early '90s, before anyone had heard of "www." or had even thought of ".mp3" or ".mp4". In 1995 I acquired a 1GB hard drive and felt like king of the known world. Sure, it was in a case about the size of a loaf of bread, but an entire gigabyte! All to myself! Today I have a Drobo which is in a case roughly the same size as that 1GB drive, but it has 2 terabytes of redundant storage -- 2,000x the space on that prime example of mid-90s storage tech.

One thing hasn't changed: there's still never enough hard drive space. It seems to be as unavoidable as death and taxes. That Drobo? It's about 95% full.

Enter OmniDiskSweeper, a freeware program by The Omni Group which will allow you to find where your diskspace has gone. Now, there are a number of different programs out there for analyzing your hard drive space: DiskInventoryX, GrandPerspective, Baseline, DaisyDisk, and WhatSize, to name just a few. Choosing one may be as personal as which Twitter client or web browser you prefer. I like OmniDiskSweeper for two reasons: it is free and it is simple. It uses the same "Column View" that I use in Finder, and automatically sorts the folders which use the most disk space to the top.

For example, looking at the Drobo, I can see that about 50% of the space on that device is taken up by programs I have recorded using Elgato's EyeTV. You might also find files in unexpected places. A friend recently used OmniDiskSweeper and realized that he had tried to copy a bunch of files to an external hard drive, but something had gone wrong. Instead of moving the files to the external drive, they had just been moved into a folder in /Volumes/.

OmniDiskSweeper makes it easy to delete files right through the app; simply select the file and click the big red "Delete" button. A word of warning! A warning dialogue box will appear, asking you to confirm that you want to "Destroy" the files. They will not be sent to the Trash (since the assumption is that you are running OmniDiskSweeper because you want to reclaim diskspace), they will be deleted immediately.
The Omni Group made OmniDiskSweeper (along with several other utilities) free a few months ago, so if you looked at it and were turned off by a price tag, give it another look. It may not have as many bells and whistles as some of the other programs out there, but it's hard to beat OmniDiskSweeper for ease of use.

UPDATE: TUAW reader "ithinkergoimac" comments below that OmniDiskSweeper may report incorrect (significantly increased) file sizes if you are using TimeMachine.
TUAW Friday Favorite: OmniDiskSweeper helps you track down where all your disk space went originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sponsored Topics: Omni Group - Hard disk drive - WhatSize - Elgato - TUAW
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Apple posts two new updates
Filed under: Video, Software Update, Xserve, Mac mini, Mac OS X Server
Just days after all the hardware updates on Tuesday, Apple has posted two new support downloads.

The first, Pro Applications Update 2009-01, contains several updates for applications in Final Cut Studio. This update includes Final Cut Pro 7.0.1, Motion 4.0.1, Soundtrack Pro 3.0.1, Color 1.5.1, and Compressor 3.5.1.

This update addresses general compatibility issues, improves overall stability, and addresses a number of other minor issues.

You can download this update through Software Update, or on the Apple Support Downloads page.

Also, Apple released Apple Server Diagnostics 3X106, which replaces Apple Server Diagnostics 3X104 to provide support for Snow Leopard Server. This is compatiable with the Xserve (Early 2008 or Early 2009) or the Mac mini server config (Early 2009).

This download is also available on the Apple Support Downloads page.
TUAW Apple posts two new updates originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 23 Oct 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Snow Leopard Fixes: Terminal shell workaround
Filed under: Odds and ends, Terminal Tips, Snow Leopard
Ever since I installed Snow Leopard, I've been dealing with a particularly annoying bug. Terminal keeps forgetting my shell preferences.
I generally prefer to use tcsh rather than bash. This is mostly because I'm a technological dinosaur. I also have a lot invested into my ancient and extensive .cshrc that has taken years to grow and develop.

Normally, I set the default shell inside the Terminal app preferences. But there's a problem. Snow Leopard keeps losing my preferences for reasons I do not begin to understand. With this Snow Leopard bug, I had to find another approach for choosing my shell. Terminal preferences were no longer going to work for me.

There are actually two very good ways to handle this problem.

First, there's chsh, as pointed out by Richard Buckle and Brian "Shmit" this morning. A command line utility, chsh edits the OS X user database, allowing you to change a user's default shell. chsh is built into OS X, and you can pull up a man page to read details about its use. Supply the shell you want to use, authenticate, and you're set. There is, however, an easier solution.

It's System Preferences. As Bill Bumgarner and Jordan Breeding reminded me today, you can access advanced user settings by right-clicking (or Ctrl-clicking) a user name in the Accounts settings; then choose Advanced Options. (Please note that you must first unlock the settings before this trick becomes available.)

When selected, an Advanced Options screen appears. You can set the new login shell in this screen. A simple pop-up list offers easy access to all installed shells. Select the one you want to use and, once selected, click OK to dismiss the screen and return to the Accounts settings pane.

This solution works a lot better than the bash .profile approach I had been using for a few weeks. Running tcsh through the .profile initialization file had caused an extra layer of interaction each time I wanted to close a terminal window. The application warned me that I was about to kill a running process (i.e. my tcsh subprocess). Changing my default shell meant I could create and close windows on demand without that extra dialog, a welcome respite.

In conclusion, while I'm not sure why Terminal keeps losing its preferences, I'm pleased that I at least learned a way to bypass the shell issue. Hopefully, Apple will get this bug fixed soon.
TUAW Snow Leopard Fixes: Terminal shell workaround originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sponsored Topics: Snow Leopard - Operating system - Apple - TUAW - Unofficial Apple Weblog
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