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TUAW's Daily App: What Cocktail

What Cocktail is a stylish app with a simple concept: what kind of cocktail do you want to drink, right now? By inputting your mood and location, then shaking (not stirring, of course) the app, you get a drink suggestion with a well designed logo and the recipe to go with it in case you're making your own. Sure, there's not a lot to it, but the design of the app is a great example of form meeting function. If you're at a bar and in a state where you can't choose your own drink, What Cocktail seems like a perfect solution.

As of this writing, the app is on sale for US$0.99, so you can go grab it for just a buck. If there's a downside, it's that the drink choices are somewhat limited. Not only will you probably know the drink that comes up, but it might not quite fit the mood you're in. That's to be expected, though; you definitely want something simple to make and order, and if you're ordering drinks selected by an app, you have to know that they won't always be the right thing no matter what. I have one thing to say to that: Cheers! Drink up anyway.*

*Of course, always drink responsibly and safely. And stay away from tequila -- that stuff is trouble.
TUAW's Daily App: What Cocktail originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 22 Feb 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Apple opening store in Anchorage, Alaska

Apple will open its most northerly store in Anchorage, Alaska, later this year according to ifoAppleStore. It will be nearly 300 miles north of the current most northerly store in Aberdeen, Scotland, and within driving distance of the Arctic Circle. Apple is currently advertising for retail staff to work in the space that it's taking over from the Eddie Bauer chain (don't worry, Eddie Bauer is only moving downstairs) in the city's Fifth Avenue Mall.

At 61 degrees north, Anchorage is about 600 miles south of the Arctic Circle. The new Apple Store seems likely to remain its most northerly outpost for a while unless the citizens of Murmansk get up a petition to be granted their own Genius Bar.
Apple opening store in Anchorage, Alaska originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 22 Feb 2011 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Mac 101: Quick navigation of browser tabs
If you ever use the tabs in your web browser, you may have a hard time navigating between them as you take your hand off the keyboard, put it on your mouse, click on the tab you're looking for, look at that page for a moment and then click back on the first tab again. As a person who has loads of tabs open all the time for researching all kinds of things, going back and forth like this is pretty inefficient.

Luckily, two major browsers for the Mac (that is Firefox and Chrome) offer a very handy method for going from tab to tab: Pressing Command and any of the number keys will take you to that tab. So Cmd+3 will take you to the third tab across, Cmd+9 to the ninth, etc. (although in Chrome, Cmd+9 will take you to the last tab, no matter what). This makes it easy to go from tab 2 to tab 7, for example. In Safari, however, Cmd+1 will take you to the first item in the Bookmarks Bar, located under the URL and Search bar. [Updated with some corrections, thanks commenters! - Ed.]

Now for people who have way more than nine tabs open (like me), it's also a good idea to learn the keyboard commands to flip to the next or previous tab in your browser of choice.

Firefox, Chrome: Command+Option+Arrow (left or right)
Safari: Command+Shift+Arrow (left or right)

If you want your tabs in a different order, you can drag the tabs around to rearrange them however you'd like, and then use the keyboard commands to flip between them.

You don't have to learn all the available keyboard commands all at once, but if you can add a couple here and there, you can do a lot to streamline your workflow.
Mac 101: Quick navigation of browser tabs originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 21 Feb 2011 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Apple patent features sound-driven commands

A new patent by Apple reveals that the company has been working on gesture-based commands determined with audio transducers on the corners of a given surface -- in other words, as your fingers press and tap on a surface (like a keyboard or a computer casing or even the bezel around an iPad), the audio receivers would determine where and how you touched it, driving a user interface. The patent outlines a few different ways this could be done, from listening in to the housing itself or just keeping an electronic ear out for the sounds of touching the surface.

It seems like this would all be done via interaction with the surface itself, though we've seen interaction done with ultrasound, where a set of receivers actually determine movement and placement in the air. Apple has also included the apparatus as an add-on to a laptop screen, so they're playing around with it in a few different ways. It's hard to see how you'd do multi-touch with a setup like this, but of course this is just research rather than application.

Of course, as we always say on these patents, this is just research at this point, and it's unlikely we'll see this out as an actual product any time soon. In my estimation, it seems like this is something Apple was considering before it went with the capacitive surface on the iPad -- now that Apple has bet big on those components, it's unlikely that touch interfaces would be switched in the middle of a product's life.

[via Engadget]
Apple patent features sound-driven commands originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 21 Feb 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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TinyGrab declines to sell subscriptions through the App Store

Add another name to the list of developers who are choosing to opt-out of Apple's subscription restrictions lately. Rhapsody and Readability were the first two we posted about, although Readability didn't so much opt-out as get rejected and decide not to play the subscription game. Now, a service called TinyGrab has posted that it won't be developing for the App Store because of "Apple's new greedy model." The company says that it was looking forward to providing its premium subscription-based file sharing service through the iOS and Mac App Store platforms, but Apple's restrictions on sharing user data and accounts that expire after a certain time are untenable for their business. The company is willing to pay the 30 percent cut, but unwilling to deal with Apple's terms that disallow any paid upgrades or features added to the app via outside subscriptions.

The company still plans to develop for the Mac and, in fact, is about to release a new version of its software this week. But TinyGrab says that Apple has effectively "locked us out" of the App Stores by asking far too much in terms of the restrictions.

Granted, none of these companies publicly fighting the restrictions are all that big, and we've already heard of plenty of companies who feel the rules are perfectly reasonable (and indeed, have already started making subscriptions available). Despite TinyGrab's objections, Apple is completely within its rights to make these requirements as long as they don't violate any antitrust laws. Still, there's definitely a growing number of developers unhappy with the deal they're being offered on in-app subscription purchases. Perhaps if Apple lowered the percent cut for services that happen to have content as a functional component of the service (as opposed to pure content plays like Kindle, Netflix, PopSci, The Daily, etc.) they would be more amenable to Apple's terms? TinyGrab will, at least, still be available as a standalone Mac application.
TinyGrab declines to sell subscriptions through the App Store originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 21 Feb 2011 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Will 10.7 add a "safe deposit box" to your Mac?
It seems as though Apple is hard at work on new features for OS X 10.7 Lion this summer, and the latest possible addition to the OS is something that would solve a huge problem plaguing the tech world today -- insecurity with remote file storage. According to this find by Patently Apple, we may see a new "Safe Deposit Box" in Lion that aims to protect your files using cloud architecture in the same way that a physical safe deposit box protects your assets at a bank or other location.

The basic idea described in the patent revolves around a single icon that, when the user drops a file onto it, would instantly upload and protect the file using Apple-backed cloud servers (which could possibly be located at their new $1 billion North Carolina data center). All of one's secure files would then be available by logging into the Safe Deposit Box service with a user name and password. For enhanced security, the patent also mentions a small window of time before the login expires to prevent accidental viewing of files by other individuals. This storage center would presumably also store digital copies of iTunes purchases, therefore solving the age old problem of losing your precious collection of tunes in a hard drive failure.

We've seen similar technology in OS X already with FileVault, which encrypts and stores secure files on the fly. However, we've never seen deep internet-based secure storage from Apple, and it would be a welcome addition for those of us who are working with sensitive documents on multiple Macs (I know I'd be more comfortable with this than, say, Dropbox). It certainly looks like a step in the right direction. Let's hope that this idea is under active development at the big fruit company.
Will 10.7 add a "safe deposit box" to your Mac? originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 21 Feb 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Official Minecraft app, Final Fantasy 3 coming to iPhone and iPad

Two pieces of good news for iOS gamers. First up, we've seen an unofficial Minecraft app appear (and disappear) on the App Store before, but it looks like an official client is coming. Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson says that an official iOS client for the popular sandbox game will be out later this year. It won't bring in all of the features of the full version (which you can play as a beta for free, or buy to experience the full thing), but especially because it's official, it should be more than adequate to take care of your Minecraft fix while out and about.

Square Enix has also announced that Final Fantasy 3 will be arriving on iOS very soon. The company has already released the first two games in the series on Apple's platform, and now the third will be out as well. Note that this is the Japanese Final Fantasy 3 -- this is the one that wasn't released in the US until recently on the Nintendo DS. I'll be waiting for my favorite iteration of the series, which is actually Final Fantasy 6 (though it was released in the US as Final Fantasy 3); it features classic characters like Kefka and that amazing opera scene. But this one should be good, too, especially since most US gamers probably haven't played it yet.
Official Minecraft app, Final Fantasy 3 coming to iPhone and iPad originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 21 Feb 2011 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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TUAW Cares: Sharing with the troops
After we posted about the free rollover minutes offer from AT&T earlier this month, we were deluged by readers who wanted to know if they could donate some or all of their accumulated minutes to US troops serving overseas. We contacted AT&T to see if we could make this happen. Unfortunately, AT&T does not accept donated rollover minutes or allow you to transfer them.

AT&T spokesperson Seth Bloom told us to let our readers know about the Cell Phones for Soldiers program, which collects used handsets in order to raise funds to buy prepaid phone cards for members of the military. You can donate directly, without having to fork over your iPhone, by texting "CP4S" to 704 to make a $5 contribution to Cell Phones for Soldiers. AT&T is waiving all messaging charges and taxes for the text donations.

There are a number of online petitions aimed at getting AT&T to change its policy on donating rollover minutes, but to date, AT&T has no policy in-place to allow this kind of donation to occur.
TUAW Cares: Sharing with the troops originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 21 Feb 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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MacBook Pro rumors: SSD boot drive standard, bigger trackpad, lighter weight
Citing a source from within Apple, Boy Genius Report has some interesting tidbits on the imminent MacBook Pro update. According to BGR's source, the MacBook Pro's trackpad will be getting even larger than those in the current lineup, and the overall weight of the notebook has dropped by about half a pound.

The most interesting bit is something that's been circling the rumor mill for a couple years. Supposedly, the new base model MacBook Pros will feature a small internal solid state hard drive (SSD), 8 to 16 GB in size, that houses OS X and all its associated system files as a "boot drive." User files will be stored on a separate standard hard drive -- or, as a build-to-order option, everything can be stored on one large (but very expensive) SSD, same as the current models. The idea behind this hybridized two-drive setup is the faster SSD would be used to speed up system performance while the slower but much larger standard hard drive would serve up users' documents, applications, media files, and so on. The overall result would be a much speedier MacBook Pro, at least in terms of disk performance.

This hybrid SSD-HDD setup has been a perennial rumor that hasn't made it into a portable Mac yet, so don't get your hopes too high. That said, it's looking more plausible now than before, considering the MacBook Air's diminutive flash memory-based storage. We should know for sure one way or another within the next week, because all signs point to a MacBook Pro upgrade very soon.

MacBook Pro rumors: SSD boot drive standard, bigger trackpad, lighter weight originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 21 Feb 2011 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Apple Retail's alliance with OnForce: A bad deal for consultants, consumers?
Apple Retail is changing the way that non-warranty support calls currently handled by certified Apple consultants are assigned, and that's making some members of the Apple Consultants Network (ACN) unhappy.

In the past, a consultant who had gone through Apple's rigorous certification process and paid the annual ACN program fees could be interviewed by local Apple Store managers to be added to a referral list. If an Apple customer had an issue that could not be handled in-store by the Genius Bar, the store would provide him or her with a random selection of business cards from local ACN members who were on the list, and the customer could set up an appointment with the ACN.

While this program worked well for many years, it apparently rubbed Apple Retail (the current organization behind the ACN program and the Apple Stores) the wrong way. They had no control over the rates charged by ACN members and also had no way -- other than by word of mouth -- to verify the quality of the work that was being performed by ACNs. That all began to change in 2009 when Apple began testing a new support structure that used an existing organization, OnForce, to distribute support calls to ACN members who wanted to sign up as part of the program.
Continue reading Apple Retail's alliance with OnForce: A bad deal for consultants, consumers?
Apple Retail's alliance with OnForce: A bad deal for consultants, consumers? originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 21 Feb 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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TUAW Tip: Generate iTunes Store RSS feeds
iTunes obviously has a great deal of data about its sales; Apple is quite aware of the top sellers among its music, apps, movies and podcasts. That information is also available through RSS feeds. If you want to share that data on your website, or even if you just want it in your RSS reader, you can use the official iTunes RSS Generator to get the right feed.

You can refine the RSS feed created by Country, Media Type, Feed Type, Size and whether to allow explicit content. The Media Types available include Music, Podcasts, Audiobooks, TV Shows, Music Videos, Movies, Mac Apps and Apps. There are obviously many options under each media type, so you should check it out and see what's available. Just punch in the criteria you want to follow, hit "Generate" and then hook up that feed to an RSS reader, and you'll be kept up to date on the latest changes in the iTunes stores.
TUAW Tip: Generate iTunes Store RSS feeds originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 21 Feb 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Android may save the day for Apple's iPad subscription policy in the EU
There may never be an official "thank you" note sent, but Apple may be secretly grateful for the explosion of Android tablets about to hit the market. Apple is under the watchful eye of both the United States and the European Union's regulatory bodies regarding its new subscription policy for the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. The terms of this new policy have prompted some to question whether it runs afoul of current anti-competitive regulations.

These anti-competitive concerns may be allayed when the tidal wave of Android tablets lands, and both consumers and publishers can choose between Android and iOS for their media consumption and distribution needs. European Union commissioner Andris Piebalgs echoes this sentiment when he writes to a European Parliament member, saying that "alternative applications platforms exist and several companies have recently launched or are expected to launch in the near future a number of devices similar in terms of functionality to the iPad."

Though this statement was released prior to Apple's subscription changes and Google's One Pass announcement, its premise of increased competition from Android tablets remains the same. With an influx of Android tablets slated for release and an alternative subscription service, market forces and not a single company's policies will shape the future of digital media. Of course, this laissez-faire sentiment may change when regulators catch wind of Readability, a paid web service whose app was reportedly rejected from the App Store because it does not offer an in-app subscription option.
Android may save the day for Apple's iPad subscription policy in the EU originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 21 Feb 2011 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Dear Aunt TUAW: How do I restore a Mac App Store purchase?
Dear Aunt TUAW,

Hi! How can one restore applications purchased through the Mac App Store after an OS X reinstall? I couldn't find any related info.

Thanks in advance,

@Fellowweb
Continue reading Dear Aunt TUAW: How do I restore a Mac App Store purchase?
Dear Aunt TUAW: How do I restore a Mac App Store purchase? originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 21 Feb 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Rare official Apple playing cards up for auction on eBay
If your Apple collectibles case has an empty slot in it for something new, you may just want to check out these very rare Apple Computer Playing Cards up for auction on eBay. Brought to our attention by MacStories, this official Apple-branded set of OS 7 icon playing cards was purchased at an Apple campus store back in 1997 and is still in brand-new and unused condition.

The cards come as a full deck of 52 cards plus two Jokers, and the icons are of OS 7 Bombs, Clocks, Mac Face and Trash Cans rather than the standard card illustrations of clubs, hearts, diamonds and spades. Bidding is now up to £205 with six days remaining in the auction. These sets were available only to Apple employees back in the day, so those of you looking for a rare Apple collectible may want to check them out.

If £205 (and still climbing) seems like a little much dough to pull out of your wallet right now for these Apple cards, maybe something like a collectible iPad Cutting Board for US$19.95 is more your speed. Better yet, for the absolute low price of $0.00, Apple fans who are also playing card fanatics may want to check out Full Deck Solitaire, reviewed earlier today here on TUAW.

[via MacStories and The Next Web]
Rare official Apple playing cards up for auction on eBay originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 21 Feb 2011 14:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Pennant, awesome baseball stats app for iPad

As we turn away from football and towards spring training, baseball fans with an iPad may want to check out Pennant, a new baseball statistics app that recently landed on the App Store. The new application contains details on every major league game played from 1952 to 2010. That's more than 115,000 games!

The application uses a combination of a Cover Flow and grid-style interface that makes it easy to browse by team names and by team geographic location. When you are viewing the information on an individual team, you can view each game within a season, plus performance statistics such as batting average and earned run averages for each season as a whole.

These two views only scratch the surface of the statistics that are available within Pennant. Each season can be further broken down into individual games, a view that lets you see the details and player roster for each game. If you want to relive the moment the ball dribbled through the legs of Bill Buckner in game 6 of the 1986 World Series, you can check out a game replay view that lets you scrub through a timeline of plays within the game. [Sorry for that example, Dave C. -Ed.]

Beautifully presented with a staggering amount of information, Pennant is a must-have for any baseball fan. The application is available for the iPad at a very reasonable US$4.99. Before you start worrying about storage size, the Pennant application is a mere 8.4 MB in size, as the bulk of the data is pulled down over the internet. Additional details about the application and the developer behind it can be found at the application's website.

[Via Appadvice]
Pennant, awesome baseball stats app for iPad originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 21 Feb 2011 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Present PDFs with style using PDF to Keynote
So, your boss just dropped a 25-page PDF document into your lap for a presentation he is doing today using Keynote for iPad. In typical fashion, he needed it done yesterday, but is handing it to you now for a presentation he is doing in a little over an hour. He utters the obligatory apology for the delay and re-assures you with his vote of confidence when he says, "I know you will be able to get it done on time." While your blood begins to boil and you break out in cold sweat due to this looming deadline, you may want to take a few deep breaths and point your browser to the computer science department at Harvey Mudd College where you will find a handy tool called PDF to Keynote.

PDF to Keynote is a Mac application that takes a PDF document and converts it to Keynote format. Each page in a PDF file gets converted to its own slide within Keynote. Though you cannot change the text or images on each converted slide (they are imported as images), you can add in new slides and overlay content to spruce things up. Once you convert your PDF document to Keynote format and make changes to it with Keynote '09 for the Mac, you can save the document and sync it to your iPad using iTunes. The whole process should take 30 minutes tops, and your boss will be ready for his presentation. Even if you don't find yourself in this aforementioned situation on a semi-regular basis, it is worth keeping PDF to Keynote in your mental file cabinet as you or someone you know may need it for a future presentation.
Present PDFs with style using PDF to Keynote originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 21 Feb 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Apple rejects Readability due to subscription policy -- where will it end?

Readability simplifies websites for easier reading. It's a service which strips online articles of annoying jiggly-belly ads and other distractions, puts that content into a very readable format, and delivers it to you in Safari or on mobile browsers. Readability was so loved by someone at Apple that it was even put into Safari. Unfortunately, you won't see a Readability app in the App Store. Why? Readability requires a $5-a-month subscription. Your $5 a month doesn't just go to the developers -- they take 70 percent ($3.50) of your monthly fee and give it back to the writers and publishers of said content. Seems like a simple, elegant solution to the clutter on the web, doesn't it? Content is delivered, but a software service declutters that content for a price. According to Apple, this constitutes a content app with a subscription fee, and under section 11.2 in the app guidlines:

11.2 Apps utilizing a system other than the In App Purchase API (IAP) to purchase content, functionality, or services in an app will be rejected.

Thus, Readability will not appear in the App Store -- it was rejected by Apple, citing the above clause. In a rather scathing open letter to Apple, the developers behind Readability point out that tiny shops like theirs charge tiny subscription fees, a "tiny sliver of app sales that represent a tiny sliver of your revenue." Now the big question: Where will this end? Content is one thing -- Amazon and others charge publishers various fees to publish their content on their stores. Functionality is an understandable use of in-app purchases, like buying more guns or Smurfberries, enabling you to do more things within an app. But services? One huge problem, and a recurring one for the normally tight-lipped Apple, is what constitutes a "content-based" app.

Continue reading Apple rejects Readability due to subscription policy -- where will it end?
Apple rejects Readability due to subscription policy -- where will it end? originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 21 Feb 2011 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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How to inspect iOS's HTTP traffic without spending a dime

image credit: Matrix Rain by docmiller on deviant art, CC BY-SA 3.0

I recently had a problem. I was seeing intermittent issues with an iPhone app, Tapatalk, not working properly with a web forum hosted by a friend of mine. I knew there was a much better chance of getting the bug fixed if I could a) prove it was a bug and b) show the devs exactly where the problem was, but I was hampered by the usual problem: iOS apps are a bit of a black box, and I couldn't see what it was doing internally.

However, like almost all network-aware iOS apps, this one was clearly using a web service to get data from the backend. So, all I needed to do was figure out a way to see the traffic on the web service. This is the sort of thing I used to do all the time when my day job was writing load testing scripts for big ecommerce sites, but the first time I'd had to do it on the Mac or from an iOS client. I managed to get it working after doing a little research. If you find yourself in need of a similar solution -- perhaps for iOS app development, reporting a bug or some other reason (or just plain hacker interest!) -- then click through for step-by-step instructions on how to intercept and view your iOS web traffic from any Mac running on the same network.
Continue reading How to inspect iOS's HTTP traffic without spending a dime
How to inspect iOS's HTTP traffic without spending a dime originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 21 Feb 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Do you hate your iPad?
Cruising through the mass of stuff to read on the internet this morning, I hit this headline on Slate.com: "I Hate My iPad." The article, by John Swansburg, said that he felt he didn't improve his life with his $600 investment. In fact, he said that spending his money on a salad spinner would have been more productive. Pow! Zing!

Digging a little deeper, the author admits the iPad is nice for browsing the web, but he likes the Kindle more for reading books because of the sharp e-ink screen. He hates typing on the iPad and generally doesn't think it is a big enough improvement over his laptop to justify the additional expense.

Fair enough. Reading the piece forced me to think about my own iPad purchase. However, I came to opposite conclusions. At home, the iPad has pretty much replaced my laptop for email and web surfing, and I do some heavy-duty control via VNC of some other computers in the house, even when I'm not home.

Using apps like Pulse, reading RSS feeds is a pleasurable experience, and while Pulse runs on the iPhone, the extra screen real estate makes the iPad a completely different experience. Sure, the iPad's software keyboard is not a great solution for extensive word processing or long emails, but you can pair it with a Bluetooth keyboard.
Continue reading Do you hate your iPad?
Do you hate your iPad? originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 21 Feb 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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iOS 4.3 beta users able to use wireless hotspot on AT&T
An isolated report suggests AT&T is beginning to provision its system to support personal hotspot on iPhones running iOS 4.3. According to AppleInsider, a developer with a beta build of iOS was able to set up his AT&T account with this upcoming feature. He reportedly mentioned Verizon a few times to help convince the representative to activate it on his account.

Verizon Wireless currently offers the personal hotspot on the iPhone 4 for $20 per month on top of a $30 per month unlimited data plan. Though not confirmed, AT&T is expected to follow in Verizon's footsteps and offer its mobile hotspot at a similar price.

Earlier this month, AT&T confirmed that it was rolling out personal hotspot to selected handsets, but the iPhone was not included in this list. The carrier's confirmed plan includes 2 GB of mobile hotspot data for $20 per month when bundled with AT&T Data Pro plan, which provides 2 GB of data for $25 monthly. Combined, these plans will cost users $45 per month and will provide a total of 4 GB of data that can be spread across all connected devices. The personal hotspot feature for iOS may debut with iOS 4.3 in the upcoming weeks.
iOS 4.3 beta users able to use wireless hotspot on AT&T originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 21 Feb 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Ask TUAW: Presidents Day Edition
Hi everyone! Welcome to the Presidents Day Edition of Ask TUAW -- everyone's favorite Mac and iOS Q&A and advice column. We got a nice group of questions from last week's post, but we always need more!

Here's what we need you to do: go to the comments of this post, think long and hard about which burning questions have been bothering you about your Mac, iPod, iPad, iPhone or AppleTV and ask away! You can also email your questions directly to ask [at] tuaw.com.

When asking a question, it makes life a lot easier for the Ask TUAW team if you include what type of machine you're using, which version of Mac OS X you're running or, if you're asking an iPhone/iPod/iPad question, let us know which generation device and which version of iOS you have -- though, in general, you should always upgrade to the latest version if you can.

Now, questions!

Henry asks:

I have a large iPhoto database of about 50,000 photos. Despite having a very beefy machine (2.8 GHz 8-Core with 32 GB RAM / 4 TB Disk and the 4870 GPU) to say it is slow to work in would be an understatement. It takes almost a minute to open, and is incredibly slow to scroll through. Working in it is unbelievably slow, while Aperture on the same machine is flawless and quick.

How can I make this usable (considering I have already thrown huge hardware at it)? It seems to have ballooned to over 300,000 files with all the thumbnails, faces, etc.
Continue reading Ask TUAW: Presidents Day Edition
Ask TUAW: Presidents Day Edition originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 21 Feb 2011 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Flickery is on the Mac App Store, and you can win a free copy
We've mentioned Flickery a couple of times, and I've been using it for over a year now as my desktop client for Flickr. Developer Matthias Gansrigler has added quite a few new features since the last time we covered it, and the performance has increased significantly.

Now that Flickery is available in the Mac App Store (US$23.99), that's going to be the exclusive outlet for new customers. Updates for current users will still be delivered outside of the App Store, though.

If you're a Flickr user, I'd recommend taking a look at Flickery. In fact, we have three Mac App Store promo codes for it to hand out to our readers. If you're in the market for a slick way to access and upload your photos and videos, browse and download your friends' and explore all of Flickr, leave a comment on this post, and we'll announce the winners in about a week.

Here are the rules and a link to the legal statement:
- Open to legal US residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia who are 18 and older.
- To enter leave a comment on this post.
- The comment must be left before Sunday, February 27, 11:59 PM Eastern Daylight Time.
- You may enter only once.
- Three winners will be selected in a random drawing.
- Prize: Mac App Store promo code for Flickery (US$23.99 value).
- Click Here for complete Official Rules.
Good Luck!
Flickery is on the Mac App Store, and you can win a free copy originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 21 Feb 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Nomad capacitive brush now available for iPad

Some remarkable work has already been produced by artists using iPads -- David Hockney even mounted an exhibition in Paris of his iPad and iPhone paintings -- and the release of the new Nomad Brush should only increase their creativity.

Until now, artists have been limited to using their fingers or eraser-like styluses, but this is set to change with the introduction of the Nomad Brush, which is made with capacitive fibers to give creative types the same "feel" as if they were painting normally.

Designed by artist and architect Don Lee, the US$24 Nomad Brush works on all capacitive screens, including iPhones, iPod touches and iPads (and even the Samsung Galaxy if you're tempted by the Android side).

"Nomad brush is carefully hand-crafted and made with exceptionally conductive materials," says Lee. "This allows the brush to be extremely responsive, making brushstrokes immediate and effortless on any capacitive touchscreen device." Check out the video below to see the brush in action.

[If your artistic leanings are more refrigerator door than the Louvre, keep an eye out for Crayola's new stylus offering coming later this year. - Ed.]

[via RazorianFly]
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Nomad capacitive brush now available for iPad originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 21 Feb 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Conference Companion app suite poised to transform event experiences

If you're attending a professional conference or symposium, you can expect to do a lot of walking around, meeting and greeting, professional networking and intensive learning. Unfortunately, you can also expect to be saddled with a lot of paper: venue maps, agendas, speaker bios, training manuals and product information. For years, the events industry has been working towards the goal of 'green meetings' that manage with little or no printed collateral for participants to schlep around. Unfortunately, getting a ubiquitous, easy-to-use and relatively inexpensive solution for this challenge has proved elusive.

Enter the big brains at Parliant, a longtime Mac developer based in Ottawa, Canada. For the past three years, CEO Kevin Ford and his team have been quietly testing, tuning and deploying one-off implementations of just such a 'paperless conference' solution for big-name customers like the American Association of Neurological Surgeons and the Canadian Media Production Association -- you can see the results on the App Store today.

Deployed on the iPod touch or iPhone, the conference apps install quickly from the App Store and then perform a full data download over Wi-Fi to fill in all the necessary content: agendas, exhibitors, maps, product details and attendee contact/social networking capabilities. The apps even include exhibitor ads, helping defray the costs for conference organizers. Parliant worked with customers to organize and convert all their content for use on the app platform.

Ford's confidence in his white-label solution is now at the point where Parliant is ready to offer this platform to the market at large. Conference Companion is now available for deployment by meeting organizers, based on a modular configuration; you only purchase the features you need. For large events and professional meetings, it's a huge step forward in the elimination of the paper schlep.
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Conference Companion app suite poised to transform event experiences originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 21 Feb 2011 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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TUAW's Daily App: Full Deck Solitaire

A solitaire game? That's what you're probably asking out loud right now, since a) there are a ton of solitaire games on the App Store, and b) I haven't had a lot of luck picking your favorites in the past. But there's a reason Full Deck Solitaire is here, and his name is Graeme Devine.

Devine is a highly experienced game developer who designed the classic 7th Guest game, worked on Quake 3 Arena, and also worked as Ensemble Studios on Halo Wars, Microsoft's console RTS title. Devine knows how to make great games, yet he's released this, Full Deck Solitaire, under his own personal GRL Games studio.

The story behind Full Deck Solitaire is a pretty personal one for Devine, who wanted to make a casual title that his own family could enjoy. Full Deck Solitaire offers 22 versions of solitaire to play, smart hints when you get stuck and lots of customization, including the ability to put your own photos in the background or on the cards. Stats track all of your scores, and full Game Center integration lets you watch friends over the leaderboards.

The game's available on the iPad right now for the low price of absolutely free, or you can check out the Mac App Store version. Not only is this an excellent solitaire app by a developer who's been around the block before, but it's a nice personal story for him as well.
TUAW's Daily App: Full Deck Solitaire originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 21 Feb 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Apple beats Kindle for e-books in the UK
An interesting post over at Giga OM is shedding light on the unanswered question: is the iPad or the Kindle pulling ahead in the race to provide e-books to customers? Citing Jo Henry, the managing director of Book Marketing Ltd, the answer seems to clearly be Apple, at least in the United Kingdom.

The data collected by Book Marketing and its parent companies indicates that there are more e-books read in the UK on the iPad and the iPhone each than read on the Kindle. The same is not true in the US, where Kindle is solidly beating out the iPad and iPhone, even combined. Don't worry though; the same study shows that the iOS devices are gaining ground. It could be a much different story in a year.
Apple beats Kindle for e-books in the UK originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 18 Feb 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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