Monday, June 25, 2007

The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) (17 сообщений)

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  • Wii Transfer 2.3

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    When I was at WWDC I had the pleasure of sitting down with Manton Reese, developer of Wii Transfer, and chatting about his cool little application. He showed off a version that wasn't quite ready for prime-time during the interview, but now it is available for download.

    Wii Transfer, in case you don't recall, allows you to access media from your Mac on your Wii. It also converts movies you might have on your Mac into a format that will play on your Wii. New in Wii Transfer 2.3 is:
    • Playback of unprotected AAC's is supported
    • UI has been overhauled
    • Better use of the Wii remote button
    • A snazzy new icon
    Overall, this is the coolest application that I have no use for, since I don't have a Wii yet. Wii Transfer costs $14 and there is a demo available.
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  • The Missing iPhone Data Plan

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    As you're well aware, data plans are pricey and limited. For example, AT&T recently revealed its new data options for the prepaid GoPhone service. $5 for one prepaid megabyte of data and $10 for 5MB. Other data plans charge a half penny or a penny per KB, or about $5 to $10 per megabyte. Bottom line, data costs a lot.

    So here comes Steve Jobs telling us that iPhone will do the "real" internet, none of this namby-pamby made-for-mobile sites. We're even talking YouTube video, some of the most bandwidth-intensive data on the net. Do you really want to pay $5 per video to watch a dog skateboarding? Maybe you should only use YouTube when you're on a WiFi connection.

    So where are the pricing details? It's only 4 more days until iDay. Will Mark Siegel's promise of a pre-29th rate plan disclosure hold up?

    And how much would you pay to watch a single YouTube video?

    Update: Boy Genius Report claims possible inside knowledge about the iPlan: $35-$45, unlimited data, 2000 text or unlimited text.

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  • iPhone web apps aren't that bad

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    I have a Treo 650 on AT&Tingular. I use the web lots. (So much, actually, that my phone bill came out to $175 last month because I downloaded so much data. Damn you, Google Maps!) The included browser isn't all that bad: especially when I can tap to mobile versions of my most-frequented sites (m.facebook, or m.twitter, for example).

    Even with mobile sites, though, and particularly when browsing any-ol' page...well, it's slow.

    Crowd: How slow is it?

    So slow, OS X's spinning beach ball of death would tire out half way through loading NYT.com!

    (Ba dum kish!...?)

    Sure, there's a lot of disappointment surrounding Jobs' non-announcement announcement that developers can produce Web 2.0 apps for the iPhone, in place of actual, honest-to-goodness integrated apps a la Apple's own offerings. But Apple's emphasis on the optimization of the web for the iPhone is exactly what the forthcoming iPhone World needs: on AT&Ts paltry EDGE network, how could Apple expect us to fully make use of the full-blown internet via Safari if pages take ages to load?

    Continue reading iPhone web apps aren't that bad

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  • NewsLife: News, blog and RSS reading simplified

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    In a world of RSS readers that are unveiling major new features and power beyond our wildest dreams, it's nice to see a new app that's getting back to basics. NewsLife (beta) from ThinkMac Software (previously the makers of what looks to be the retired NewsMac Pro) is just such an app, as it strips down to the simplified basics of reading news and blogs sites through RSS for those who are interested in this handy medium, but might be intimidated by more powerful juggernauts like NetNewsWire.

    Upon opening NewsLife, you are presented with a simple window and a few pre-installed news feeds to get you started. Individual headlines and posts are summarized in the centered reading pane in favor of fitting more headlines on a single page, and clicking any headline will open the entire article - still in a stripped down, content-only RSS view - in a new tab. Clicking the arrow next to any headline will open the actual item in your default browser, and some simple searching tools are provided in the right-most pane. Beyond that, there are some other niceties sprinkled throughout, such as a gear menu in the lower right with blog, email, digg and del.icio.us options, but all this 'extra' functionality is hidden well in a way that it shouldn't get in the way of new users who might not be interested in taking those leaps just yet.

    Overall, it looks like NewsLife is a good effort, and its €12 price (about $16 US as of this writing) is a good deal for an entry level RSS app. Of course, a demo is also available, so take it for a test drive if you're looking for a simple, streamlined app for reading your favorite news sites and blogs.
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  • MiniMail: iTunes' mini window makes it to Mail

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    A while ago, Derek Powazek proposed an idea for a mini Mail window based on the functionality of iTunes' mini option; hit the best fit button - the green one - in iTunes to get an idea, or simply check out Derek's post for an actual screenshot mockup of the concept. Fortunately, John Gruber just caught that OliveToast software literally ran with the concept, releasing - to my absolute delight - a MiniMail plug-in for Apple Mail.

    As you can see, MiniMail allows users to simply hit Mail's best fit button (or choosing Window > Zoom) to condense it to a 'just what you need' view, offering a customizable preview area and three menu buttons for performing a healthy set of operations. Fortunately, keyboard shortcuts still work fine as well, so ⌘-n will create a new message. Even using the arrow keys works for moving back and forth in the message list, and thankfully, the list of mailboxes is customizable for this view as well so you can see just what you need.

    After a few minutes of tinkering with the demo while writing this post, I'm happy to say that the receipt for my $9 license just arrived. MiniMail rocks, and I'm so glad someone brought Powazek's concept to life, as this is the perfect compromise that I've been looking for between constantly hiding and showing Mail while still making it easy to do basic things in it on the fly. Thanks, OliveToast software.
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  • Backup solutions shootout

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    The folks at MacZealots have posted an article that compares several Mac backup solutions, including SuperDuper! (my personal favorite), Synk Backup, Apple's Backup, iBackup and Crashplan, as well as some speculation on Time Machine.

    In the end, SuperDuper! and Crashplan came out on top as the bookends of a comprehensive plan: SuperDuper! for a full backup to an external drive, and Crashplan for off-site storage of mission-critical files. This is pretty much what I do, though I hadn't heard of Crashplan until I wrote this post!

    The important thing here - and we know you've all heard this a million times - is this: Back up your stuff!
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  • TUAW Tip: "Right Sizing" in the Open Dialog

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    A few weeks back, Dave Caolo wrote about double-clicking the pipes at the bottom of Finder's column view to automatically resize a column to accommodate long file names. This feature isn't just in Finder. You might be surprised to learn that the Open File dialog supports "right sizing" and it does so far better than Finder browser windows.

    To switch to column view in the Open dialog, click the column icon, just to the left of the location pop-up.

    As in Finder, you can double-click the double-pipe to right-size the selected column.

    Alternatively, right-click (control-click) the double-pipe to open a contextual pop-up menu (shown above) that allows you to choose from several options. Select right-sizing the selected column (as if you'd double-clicked the double-pipe), right-sizing all columns individually (each column sizes to its longest element), and right-sizing all columns equally (each column sizes to match the right-sizing of the current column). I'm not sure why Apple built this behavior into the Open dialog and not into Finder windows. It's certainly useful. Perhaps it will make it into Leopard.

    Update: A few more tips, courtesy of our fabulous readers:

    * In Finder, Option-Drag the pipes to resize all columns at once. Option-Double-Click the pipes to "Right Size all Columns equally"

    * Option+doubleclicking will 'right size' all the columns, not just the root one.

    * This menu appears to be a Cocoa-only feature, which is why it doesn't work in iTunes, Finder, Office or Adobe apps.

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  • Plaxo 3.0 is available

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    Plaxo is an online address book and calendar manager that can synchronize your information between Outlook, Google, Yahoo!, AIM, your Apple apps and more. Today they released version 3.0 which includes a number of improvements, like:
    • Google Calendar synchronization
    • Calender "countdowns" to important events
    • Improved reminders
    Best of all, Plaxo is free. It's still in beta, so take that into consideration before you try it out.
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  • eMusic gives Steve free subscription, tries to cash in on iPhone-mania

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    I don't know about you, but I just can't get enough iPhone related news! The latest company trying to hitch their wagon to the iPhone star is eMusic. eMusic, you might know, is an online purveyor of digital music downloads (they are the second biggest, right behind iTunes) but the cool thing about eMusic is that they sell MP3s sans DRM. Their whole catalog is DRM free, which means they have a smaller catalog than iTunes but you can play it on any device you own (and even some you don't).

    They are trying to make news by offering Steve Jobs a free lifetime eMusic subscription as a thanks for DRMless music in iTunes (though I have a feeling Steve gets his music from iTunes). They are offering 35 free songs for the 'iPhone.' I won't point out that this is eMusic's standard free trail membership offer, since that would make me something of a wet blanket.

    I have used eMusic before, and I suggest you check it out. I mean, free music is free music, right?
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  • Milwaukee, Wisc Apple Store to open this weekend

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    All you cheese heads in Wisconsin can drive to Milwaukee on Friday, June 29th at 6:00 PM to check out the newest Apple Store at Bayshore Town Center. The store is located in that newly expanded mall of yours. As usual, there will be T-shirts and a grand opening giveaway. If you attend, let us know!

    So, let's see. We've got the Milwaukee store opening this weekend. There's an Oklahoma store opening as well. Hmm, is anything else happening on the 29th? We can't think of anything off the top of our heads...
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  • Recipes on your iPhone

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    We here at TUAW are big fans of Apple's products (shocking, I know) so whenever something new comes out we cover the heck out of it. At the moment the new hotness, as the dorks who desperately want to sound cool say, is the iPhone. TUAW is all atwitter about the iPhone (though you can subscribe to an iPhone-less feed if it isn't your thing) which makes sense since it is a rather important product launch for Apple.

    We're not the only ones going batty for the iPhone, though. Blogs, newspapers, and magazines are all hot and bothered about the iPhone. Case in point: 101cookbooks. That's right, a cooking blog is writing about the iPhone, but that's not all. They even created new, iPhone specific versions of their site for everyone's favorite unreleased mobile device. You can check out the recent recipes, or categories on designed for the iPhone webpages.

    Who needs a silly old SDK anyway?

    Thanks, Marisa.
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  • Repair your iBook's logic board with a candle

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    Mark at Geek Technique received a 700mhz G3 iBook with video issues. The machine would boot, but produce no image on the display or when connected to an outside source. In fact, the issue he was experiencing has been documented by Apple, and a repair program was put in place. However, the program had expired by the time Mark received his 'book. What's he to do? Set that sucker on fire, that's what.

    Mark found an article that describes how the video chip becomes detached from the logic board, and how it can be re-soldered back in place. Lacking the proper tools, he tried a tea light, which didn't reach the required temperature. Finally, he burned some alcohol and White Spirit on the board, rebooted the machine and it worked! The video chip had been re-attached, and the iBook was functioning perfectly.

    Well done, Mark.
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  • Mac OS X Leopard demo videos a'plenty

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    As excited as I am for the iPhone, I'm just as excited for Mac OS X Leopard - that's why I have to thank TUAW reader Uros for sending us a link to a big ol' batch of Leopard demo videos posted at Brightcove, a video sharing service. Demoed in the videos are features like Screen Sharing, Cover Flow, Parental Controls, new screensavers and even some interesting new stuff in Preview. Most of this stuff isn't too groundbreaking on the scale of, say, Spaces, but the devil is in the details for me and it's really interesting to see some of the handy new features that unfortunately couldn't make it into Steve's keynotes. For example: Leopard's new Dictionary app can also search Wikipedia, right from within Dictionary itself. If you're interested in seeing more of Leopard in action, these videos might satisfy your appetite - at least until Apple orders them to be taken down, of course.
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  • Rig of the Week

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    TUAW reader omdot has posted a sweet shot of his Mac mini raid - artfully arranged, we might add - to our Flickr pool. He uses it as a backup of his main Linux system, and it updates itself hourly. Pretty cool.

    "mini RAID no. 2" posted by omdot.

    If you'd like to see your own rig featured here, simply upload photos into our group Flickr pool. Each Sunday (or Monday) we'll comb through the most recent entries and declare a "Rig of the Week!"
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  • Eight apps I want on the iPhone

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    As we all sit in (not so) silent torture waiting for Apple to release a true SDK (Software Development Kit) to developers for the iPhone, I figured it might be a bit more productive and fun to start dreaming up which apps would be great to bring along with us in our i-pockets. I'm glued to a Mac a lot during the day, both for my work and some of my hobbies - it would be great if I could take some of my favorite and most-used apps off the desktop and get a few things done without having to balance a notebook on my lap.

    After thinking about it, I came up with eight apps I would really love to see on the iPhone. Of course, I have no idea if their developers are even considering rolling an iPhone version, especially since we have no clue as to when Apple will stop screwing around and actually release a full-on SDK. Nevertheless, a blogger can dream, and dream I did. Read on for my list of apps that I think would fit right at home on the iPhone.

    Continue reading Eight apps I want on the iPhone

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  • Most so-called iPhone alternatives are nothing of the sort

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    I think a lot of people are getting confused as to what expensive phones are actually designed for. Analysts are trying to compare the iPhone to efforts from other companies, or folks like Walt are touting the Nokia N95 and BlackBerry Curve as potential alternatives.

    While I might be a little biased since I write for TUAW, I still think these are bad comparisons. Just because a phone costs north of $400 or $500, doesn't mean that phone is designed for the same purposes as any other phone in the general vicinity of its price. Take the Nokia N95, for example - it's an über-camera phone (which costs nearly $800, by the way). That's what it does. It has a freaking 5 megapixel camera that is making mobile photo geeks go nuts, and that's what it should do. It doesn't have any form of a full QWERTY keyboard, and it isn't designed to be a full-featured multimedia rollercoaster ride of music, movies, and podcasts. It's an über-camera phone. Period.

    Continue reading Most so-called iPhone alternatives are nothing of the sort

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  • The Leopard Roadmap

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    With all the hype surrounding a little device known as the iPhone, its sometimes easy to forget that Apple actually makes some other stuff too -- including a world-class operating system now currently known as OS X Tiger version 10.4.10. And unless you've come to the Apple fold only for the iPhone, you probably also know that Apple is currently working to bring the next version of its terrific operating system out into the world.

    This upcoming version, known as OSX 10.5 (aka Leopard) was one of those things discussed rather thoroughly at the recent World Wide Developer's Conference -- in addition to that other big thing coming out next Friday. And now, thanks to Mac Scoop, there's more information about the future roadmap of Leopard, its upcoming milestones and its eventual release. Among the details, its reveled that Leopard is expected in August to achieve a feature-full build -- where the various features of the OS are "frozen" and finalized with no more to be added.

    Next, Leopard will move towards final candidate status in September where developers have stopped including new features into the OS and instead, focus on testing it in various ways. Finally, after four to six weeks of testing, Leopard will then move to Gold Master status to prepare for its expected release date in late October. With all the iPhone talk around the net and at recent Apple events, its nice to hear a little about Apple's other plans. Don't get me wrong, I want an iPhone. But I'm first and foremost an Apple computer user and am glad to see that in the rush to become the king of consumer products, Apple doesn't seem to be forgetting about its millions of loyal customers who were there before it made iPods and iPhones.
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