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- Enable CSS3 Support for CSSEdit
Chances are if you do any kind of front-end web development on a Mac you’ve heard about CSSEdit, a very popular tool for editing .css files in OS X. I use CSSEdit pretty much all day long at my day job and while I absolutely love it and have a hard time imagining doing my job without it, its lack of support for all the new CSS3 properties is becoming more and more problematic.
Unfortunately, the good folks at MacRabbit who make CSSEdit have had their hands full lately. They just shipped a new update to their all-in-one web development app Espresso and apparently haven’t been able to get around to updating CSSEdit with full support for CSS3 yet. Lucky for us though, @andyford is on the case and has come up with this great “hack” for customizing the AutoCompletion.plist file in CSSEdit to include CSS3 syntax.
The .plist file in question is essentially just a collection of arrays that define the possible values for a given property, like font-weight for instance. As you can see from the screen shot below, the font-weight property has several strings contained in it’s array, all of which will be presented as autocomplete options when defining an elements font-weight within a .css file.
This is great news, as now we can use a handy tool like PlistEdit Pro to go in and add our own custom properties and values. By adding in additional strings to an array or by creating entirely new arrays, we can change the autocomplete behavior of CSSEdit and make it more CSS3 friendly.
But wait, Andy is ahead of the curve and has already rolled up a custom AutoCompletion.plist file (ZIP) for us which includes all the hot new CSS3 properties like border-radius, transform, transition, and more, including some custom values of his own. To join the fun, just right click on the CSSEdit application to “show package contents” and throw the custom .plist file into the CSSEdit/Contents/Resources directory. It’s probably a good idea though to first back up the existing .plist file somewhere safe just in case.
I did notice a couple CSS3 properties missing from Andy’s file but now that we know it’s there it will be easy enough to add in any important missing properties or values we need. I look forward to the folks at MacRabbit getting around to making an official update to CSSEdit now that they have the new version of Espresso out the door. There’s a lot of excitement building around HTML5 and CSS3 at the moment and I’m really hoping that my favorite CSS application can keep pace.
Переслать - Toshiba Launches 64GB Flash Drive, Possibly Bound for an iPhone Near You
If you have a 64GB iPod touch and you read this headline, you might be thinking, “What gives? Isn’t this already a no-brainer?” but the fact is, before Toshiba announced its 64GB drive today, there was no way to cram that much storage into the iPhone in its existing configuration. The 64GB touch features two 32GB modules, whereas the iPhone can only support one, since it needs all the extra space for its various wireless radios.The new chip is a single-package solution, comprised of 16 32Gbit (4GB) chips combined on a 32nm platform. In case anyone out there needs help with the math, this announcement also paves the way for a 128GB iPod touch, which would finally bring it almost up to par with its aging disc-based predecessor, the iPod classic.
Toshiba doesn’t mention Apple by name in its product announcement regarding the new high-capacity flash modules, but it does mention that they are “designed for application in a wide range of digital consumer products, including smartphones, mobile phones, netbooks and digital video cameras.” It seems Apple would make for a great higher profile customer to use the new tech in its products in those categories.
It’s not completely beyond the realm of possibility to imagine Toshiba’s new storage modules making their way into Apple’s much talked-about tablet device, either. If indeed we will see the tablet in 2010, many now expect it to arrive either in Spring or sometime during the second quarter of 2010, which does fit with the proposed production roll-out of the 64GB flash device. Samples of the new module are shipping now, with mass production expected to begin in Q1 2010.
If Apple’s device is keeping a slim profile, as recent potentially leaked video seems to suggest, and if it owes more to its iPod and iPhone brethren than to the Mac line, it stands to reason that Apple would opt for this kind of storage option over a more traditional HDD or SSD. If the device is indeed the multimedia wunderkind many blogs and analysts are predicting it will be, I’d probably pay extra for additional storage configuration options that would allow me to bump up the storage capacity to 128GB, too, which would be an easy option to include using the new modules.
While it was inevitable that 64GB flash modules would come to pass, it’s nice to have confirmation that they’ve in fact arrived, and well in time for the launch of the next iPhone revision this upcoming Spring. Tablet or not, Apple’s smartphone at least is poised to outpace the competition in terms of onboard storage by an even greater margin than it currently enjoys.
Переслать - The Nexus One: A Non-Story
Over the weekend the rumors of a Google Phone were confirmed in the guise of the whimsically named Nexus One. It’s an unbranded HTC-made carrier-unlocked handset running Android 2.0, and it looks lovely. And already articles have popped-up examining its various (rumored) features and, naturally, pondering when we can buy one for ourselves.
Why is the first thought we have when we see a new mobile phone whether we should consider switching?
Admit it — when you look at a friend’s mobile phone you automatically run through a series of questions in the back of your mind. My standard set include “Does it look good?” and “Does it have a nice UI?” (Of course, certain conditions, if met, automatically remove the phone from consideration; such as “Oh, it’s a clamshell…” and “What are those hard nobbly plasticky things? Keys, you say?”)
We do the same with desktop computers. In an airport lounge or coffee shop I feel a certain sort of infallible pride when cracking open my MacBook. After all, everyone knows those are great machines, right? Yet I still look at the other machines around me and run through my mental checklist. It’s crazy how insecure I am, how much I need to be sure my laptop doesn’t suck.
Operating Systems, too, get the same appraisal. We can’t help it. Every new release of Mac OS X gets compared with the latest version of Windows. There’s every good reason to do this if you regularly use both platforms. If you only Tweet, update Facebook or watch hilarious kittens on YouTube, what does it matter that the paltform you don’t own and don’t need just got an upgrade?
Of course, Geeks will always do this comparison of technologies — it’s in our DNA, we can’t help ourselves. But there’s a problem; our technophilic tendencies leak over into the world of the Normals.
Is Y the New X?
We use our iPhones and Kindles to scan the tech press and follow geek–lists on Twitter, while Normals, on the other hand, read dead-tree newspapers and don’t know what Twitter is. But look at the so-called “Technology” columns in those newspapers (you know, where sidebars helpfully explain the meaning of words like “touchscreen” and “3G”) and you’ll notice that they’re forever comparing gadgets, computers, OS’s and websites. Trust me, no daily newspaper “technology” columnist genuinely believes their readers care about the differences between Twitter and BrightKite. Less so the differences between Snow Leopard and Windows 7. Strangely, that doesn’t stop them writing about it.
They’re just reading select blogs in the tech community and writing their own carbon copy equivalents of what they find there. It’s to be expected, for here in Geektown technology comparions are part of the landscape. But we are taking it too far. Particularly in asking that assinine question, “Is Y the new X?”
The Nexus One is generating a lot of (quite unnecessary) buzz and if you haven’t already stumbled upon the YX question, you very soon will — “Is the Nexus the real iPhone killer?”
I say it’s nonsense. In time we’ll see detailed teardowns of the Nexus, and while geeks will compare its screen and processor to other handsets, mainstream media hacks will salivate over the possibility that here, finally, at last! we have a phone to beat the iPhone. It’s a silly pursuit.
The Nexus One. A handsome phone, but not an iPhone Killer. (Image by Engadget)
It took almost three years, but manufacturers are fast catching-up to the iPhone. Bewildering, however, the press coverage of smartphones — driven to hysteria in 2007 with the launch of the iPhone — is almost entirely focused on finding an iPhone killer. It’s the same false-dichotomy we would ridicule if, say, Nissan’s next family five-door were hailed as “the Ford killer.” Ridiculous, right? After all, they’re both essentially just cars. Strip away the optional GPS and gravity-defying cup-holders and they both have the same basic innards. This is true of the latest smartphones. They’re basically the same. True, smartphones used to be terrible, but that’s only because manufacturers were committed to cheap and easy business models and customers didn’t know they could demand something better. Apple decided to do something about that. It was a one-time shift in the mobile industry that will not happen again. The only phone that’s going to replace the iPhone is — predictably enough — the next iPhone. I can’t believe intelligent, insightful journalists and editors keep missing that point.
For every smartphone owner on the planet I’d wager there are a dozen more people with a dumb “feature” phone. Those people will never go out of their way to buy smartphones, but as the latest technology becomes cheaper, smaller and easier to manufacture, it will find its way into all handsets. One day, all phones will be smart. And most people will get there never caring which handset came first, was better than some other handset, or was considered a “killer.”
It doesn’t matter if it’s Mac vs. Windows, Bing vs. Google or iPhone vs. Android. Breathless reports along the lines of “X is here, and Y should be worried…” are almost always just white noise.
The Nexus One is a non-story. I wonder how long it will take everyone else to realize that.
Переслать - Apple Approves Video Recording App for iPhone 2G and 3G
If you’ve been reconsidering your position as a jailbreaker thanks to recent security threats or Apple’s strong disapproval, there’s now one more reason to consider going legit. Apple just approved a new app that allows iPhones other than the 3GS to record video. That’s right, both your iPhone 3G and even the older 2G model can now shoot video, without jailbreak.The app will cost you 99 cents, which is kind of aggravating, since this is basically a straightforward admission on Apple’s part that the only limitation heretofore that had prevented the older devices from shooting video was a software limitation, which it could’ve easily resolved itself. iVideoCamera (iTunes link), the app in question, is a third-party program, but at least Apple didn’t kill it from the start, I suppose, and it is still cheaper than upgrading to a 3GS.
iVideoCamera is far from perfect, though, and it has other limitations which are much more noteworthy than its cost. Video can only be shot at a maximum rate of around three frames per second, for instance, which is 10 times less than the 3GS’ 30-frames-per-second capability. As you might imagine, video quality is not the best.
Add to that the fact that the resolution of recordings likewise suffers compared with that of video recorded natively on the 3GS. Resolution is 160×213, paltry compared with the 640×480 SD-quality video shot by the 3GS. Also, you can only shoot clips up to a maximum of one minute in length. Thankfully, Laan Labs, the developer of iVideoCamera, is more than upfront about the limitations of its software, so this is definitely a case where the onus falls on the buyer.
Nor is it all bad news. iVideoCamera has some solid strengths, too, like the ability to share video to multiple sources quickly and easily. Like with the iPhone 3GS, 3G and 2G users who are shooting with iVideoCamera can export their recordings to YouTube, and in fact get more sharing options, including Facebook and Vimeo posting. Twitter integration is said to be coming soon. Future updates are also said to be bringing frame rate and resolution quality improvements.
Even if this particular app isn’t outstanding right now, this approval sets a terrific precedent for App Store policy. If iVideoCamera is allowed access, then in theory there’s nothing stopping Cycorder from coming in from the cold, so to speak, and being offered through legit channels. Cycorder is capable of a maximum of 15 frames per second, and records at a resolution of 384×288, so iPhone 2G and 3G owners might not have to wait long before a decently able video app makes its way into their upgrade-reluctant hands.
Переслать
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