Thursday, June 21, 2007

The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) (19 сообщений)

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  • Found Footage: A Philosophical Discourse on Apple Warranty Care

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    Hey kids, this is a story about a man, his laptop, and his extended warranty. Maybe it's true. Maybe it ain't. But it's sure got heart. And a sledgehammer.

    Seems that Apple refused to honor a warranty repair, said the Mac had spill damage. The owner said "No way". And rather than fork over about $800, he decided to tenderize it with a sledgehammer.

    To which we say (and join on in, if you know the tune): Don't you break my Mac, my achy breaky Mac, I don't think it'd ever understand, and if you break my Mac, my achy breaky Mac, you never really liked it anyway.

    Apologies to Robby Ray Stewart Billy Ray Cyrus and thanks to Corey Davis.

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  • Apple posts new iPhone/YouTube Ad

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    Have you been holding your breath, waiting for the latest iPhone commercial that debuted last night to appear on the Apple website? The new iPhone/YouTube ad, with all its doggy skate-boarding glory is now available for viewing on the Apple website. And as you might have guessed, it has no "2 year contract" wording on it.

    Breathe.

    Thanks Nick

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  • iPhone Purchase Strategies

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    So what's the best way for you to buy an iPhone? Will you camp out overnight? Or aim yourself towards a metropolitan center with its greater number of on-hand units? Or perhaps you'll be heading towards the suburbs to snag an iPhone from a store less likely to be hounded by campers? Here are a few points you might want to keep in mind.

    Buying an iPhone takes time. If you've ever purchased a cell phone, you know that between saying "I want it" to finishing ringing it up and working out the paperwork can take thirty or forty minutes. I called around to a few cell phone stores and most agreed that the quickest they could process someone through would probably be about 15-20 minutes--and that would be pushing it just a wee bit. I was told to bring my current account number and a statement from my current cell phone provider if I wanted to transfer service. However, several of the salesmen said they don't always keep the proper equipment on-hand for working with the SIM card stuff so you might have to wait until things calm down to finish setting that up.

    iPhones won't go on sale until the evening. Many stores have already put up signs to this effect. For my local AT&T store, they will close at 4:00 on the 29th and reopen at 6:00 PM. The guy at my store said they expected a line that would go about 2 blocks in length. You may want to call during the day and see how long the line is getting before making the decision to start camping out. And, while each store agreed that the store phones would be working during the 2 hour time out, they all suggested that getting someone to pick up the phone and answer your call might be a problem.

    Restocking supplies are not expected soon. After the initial shipments sell out (which pretty much all the salesmen I spoke to assumed was a given), the stores do not expect new stocks to show immediately (one guy said not for up for at least a month, but I'm pretty sure he was pulling that information out of his...um...imagination). So waiting until the next day may not be an option for you. All iPhones are on auto-restock, so stores will basically request more automatically after they sell out.

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  • TUAW Tip: Using FTP in Finder

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    This week, Apple posted a tip about using FTP directly from Finder. What Apple fails to mention in its tip is that whenever you connect via the Finder's Go -> Connect to Server option, make sure to include the user name in the ftp address. Don't connect to ftp://foo.org, instead, connect to ftp://erica.sadun@foo.org. Adding the user name fixes nearly all the connection problems that people write to me about. Instead of getting "The Finder cannot complete the operation because some data in (address) could not be read or written. (Error code -36)." an authentication window appears.

    Update: Apple appears to have removed the tip page. Interesting.

    Thanks, Arlo.

    Update 2: Apple's tip is still live here. (Thanks Francis.)

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  • Elgato Turbo.264 Graphics Accelerator: First Look

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    A few months ago, TUAW posted about the new turbo.264 USB h.264 encoder from Elgato. Recently, I've had the opportunity to test out the t.264 and metaphorically kick its tires. Here's a quick summary of what I found.

    What is it? The turbo.264 is a graphics co-processor in the form of a USB dongle. You connect it to a spare USB port and use it to speed up video conversions to h.264 files. The t.264 produces h.264 video optimized for iPod, Apple TV and PSP.

    How fast is it? It's pretty fast. However, newer Macintoshes are also pretty fast. It took about 3 hours to rip my copy of Serenity using t.264. It took Handbrake about 5 hours on my 1.66 GHz Intel Core Duo Mac Mini with 1 GB memory. Keep in mind that QuickTime conversion to h.264 is notoriously slow. Handbrake and MPEG Streamclip provide much faster results but the off-loaded t.264 encoder beat them handily and freed up a large chunk of the main Mac's CPU cycles.

    Will it make Handbrake faster? The accelerator only speeds up exports from QuickTime compatible applications. Handbrake doesn't export using QuickTime so it can't take advantage of t.264

    What about other QuickTime-compatible apps? Any QuickTime application that lets you select one of the export components installed by the Turbo.264 software into /Library/QuickTime/Elgato Turbo.component can take advantage of the t.264 coprocessor. The components on offer are "Movie to Apple TV (Elgato Turbo.264)", "Movie to iPod (Elgato Turbo.264)", and "Movie to PSP (Elgato Turbo.264)". Further, the iPod export allows you to select from 640x480 and 320x240.

    Continue reading Elgato Turbo.264 Graphics Accelerator: First Look

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  • Found Footage: A Chinese iPhone rip-off

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    Oh those endearing Chinese manufacturers - what would the electronics industry be without at least a few crappy knockoff products to keep original manufacturers on their toes? (Answer: companies like Apple could probably lay off a few lawyer infantries, but that's a whole 'nother conversation.) Engadget has caught footage of the 'tPhone', which sounds and looks like some sort of Windows Mobile (strangely, it uses a desktop Windows startup sound) device with heavily modified and/or skinned software. Does this look appealing? Remember: you don't have to be afraid to say 'no.'

    Of course, Engadget touts the advantages of this device, namely a removable battery and microSD card slot. That said, eagle-eyed TUAW readers have also pointed out that the recently updated iPhone gallery reveals what could possibly be some sort of slot at the top of the iPhone, as exhibited in the gallery's first picture. Add that to all the interesting new iPhone tidbits we're digging up, and it looks like we might still be in for more discoveries (and possibly even official Apple announcements) before the iPhone actually lands next week.
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  • iPhone Data Plan to be Announced June 29th?

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    With June 29th fast approaching, we at TUAW want to alert you, our very important readers and iPhone obsessives, to any and all information, tips or potential issues about the new device, I bring you this latest news from USA Today. In the article, Larry Carter, senior VP of sales for AT&T, points out steps taken by his company to, among other things, beef up its retail operations to handle the extra crowds coming in to buy an iPhone by hiring 2000 extra people, improve its network quality, and make sure iPhone works "seamlessly" with the company's wireless network by doing a great deal of "interface testing" in bars, subway stops, office buildings, rural areas, and elsewhere.

    Those all sound like positive steps, don't they? Unfortunately, there are also some negatives. According to Carter, not all AT&T retail stores are equal and those in areas with large numbers of iPod users -- such as New York City, Chicago and much of California -- will get a much larger number of iPhones at launch than stores in other areas. So, if you don't live in a big city like NYC, San Francisco or LA, expect to wait a few days (or longer) before you can pick up an iPhone. In addition, Carter mentions that the iPhone "may offer cool features such as unlimited Web browsing." However, people should expect to pay for this feature.

    "Regardless of which device you're using today, you pay us a certain amount for (voice) minutes, and you also pay us for data units," said Carter. "That is also true on the iPhone." Finally, Carter admitted that although they do have data plans coming for the iPhone, the actual specifics won't be announced until the day the device is released. Just when I thought they were starting to get it by taking those positive steps, then this happens. How can you have a device like the iPhone knowing the huge potential market for it and then not announce what, exactly, it will do until the day it comes out? Maybe its just me, but does this bother anyone else?

    [Update] Apparently, now AT&T are denying they won't announce until the 29th, at least according to iLounge. Sure would be nice to get the straight story someday. Maybe before June 29th? Of course, by then it'll be too late.

    [via AppleInsider]
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  • TUAW Automator App: Export NetNewsWire feeds

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    Not many people are familiar with how flexible and shareable your NetNewsWire / NewsGator subscriptions are, so I thought it was time to elaborate a little and play with Automator again.

    First on our sharing list: the ability to embed an automatically updating list of your NetNewsWire / NewsGator subscriptions into your website or blog. To enable this, simply sign into your NewsGator account (if you're using NetNewsWire 2.1.x or 3.x I believe you automatically get at least a 1-year NewsGator subscription) and go to Settings > Edit Locations. Assuming you have syncing with NewsGator enabled, you should see at least one location related to your NetNewsWire feeds which should have a 'Blogroll' option listed. Clicking on that will give you all the options you need to embed a small snippet of code in your site to create a list of the subscriptions you want to share publicly.

    There is another way to share your NetNewsWire subscriptions in a handy-dandy file format, easy for friends, family and visitors to download and import into just about any newsreader they use, including NetNewsWire, Google Reader and even Vienna (this is technically referred to as an OPML file, with the extension .OPML). NetNewsWire offers a File > Export Subscriptions command, but there are a few options involved and this isn't very automation-friendly. If you want to make your subscriptions available to, for example, website visitors or simply back them up on a regular basis, I put together two very basic, two-step Automator apps (packaged as zip files) that can work fine on their own or easily be incorporated into larger workflows.

    Continue reading TUAW Automator App: Export NetNewsWire feeds

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  • Flickr Find: Recreating the OS X Trash Can in real life

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    Drewm over at Flickr recreated the Mac OS X trash can in real life. It's an absolutely beautiful three-dimensional nod to the OS X dock. It makes you kind of wish he'd recreate the entire dock but searching his account only found 1 result matching "dock".

    A blue acrylic clipboard appears to have given him the inspiration. See this earlier picture of his of the same can full of coins. The photo was shot using a Canon digital camera. In terms of visual beauty, this is a big step forward from the OS sculptures Apple used to display at the Apple Campus garden in Cupertino.

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  • Google CEO says look forward to more Google/iPhone announcements

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    At ZDNet UK, Andrew Donoghue writes that at a Tuesday event in Paris, Google CEO Eric Schmidt promised further developments of Google and Apple cooperation, particularly regarding the iPhone. Schmidt said to "[E]xpect other announcements from the two companies over time." The iPhone, he said, is a particularly good platform for apps that Google has been building.

    After May's introduction of Google Gears for Webkit and the WWDC keynote that emphasized Web 2.0 development for the iPhone, one can only guess that Google may be ready to provide the off-line data component so far missing from the iPhone development picture. Google Gears provides a way to take web applications offline so you can use those applications without being actively connected to the Internet.

    [Via iLounge]

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  • iStat menus 1.0 released

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    Last month, the iSlayer crew allowed us to review a beta copy and post a screenshot gallery of iStat menus, their new full-blown app that brings system statistic and resource tracking to the menubar. Known widely for their iStat line of high-quality Dashboard widgets, iStat menus ushers in a new era of customizability and - as I discovered in my review of the beta - noticeably better performance and less resource requirements (hey, it's only fair to test how many resources are used by tools designed to track resources and system statistics). Unfortunately at the time, iStat menus was in a private beta, which meant our dear readers weren't able to get their hands on their own copy.

    Until now - iSlayer today has announced the availability of iStat menus 1.0. As far as I can tell, not much has changed from the beta I saw in May, but that simply means that an awesome, streamlined app for monitoring your system stats in the menubar has only gotten better since then. Amazingly, iStat menus is still provided as freeware (no, seriously: I would try to get the iSlayer crew committed if I knew where they lived) with the rest of their vast collection of widgets and apps, so grab a copy and start keeping an eye on your system from the comforts of Mac OS X's menubar.
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    Комментарии к сообщению:
    http://www.tuaw.com/2007/06/21/istat-menus-1-0-released/#comments



  • Picnic offers Bonjour shared folders

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    Picnic appears to be an interesting tool for small Mac networks where users need to share files. It allows you to "create shared folders of files which are automatically synced between all user's accounts using Bonjour." This could really make it easier for small businesses or workgroups to share files between users (such as was requested by Stephen in a comment to the Ask TUAW post from last week). Since the files are synchronized across multiple computers it essentially gives you a kind of live backup. Mobile users retain a copy of the files when they disconnect from the network and changes are synced back when they reconnect (conflicts are apparently marked). In a lot of ways Picnic looks like the two Mac syncing tool Martian SlingShot, but with support for multiple Macs.

    Picnic is now in beta and available for download from Objectpark software.

    [via uneasysilence]
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  • Import your icons into Photoshop

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    If you've ever wanted to edit or customize an Application icon in Photoshop, creativebits has a nice tutorial that shows how easy it is to import your icons into Photoshop as a PSD file. Basically, the trick is to open the application's icon in Preview (as was pointed out in the comments, you can most easily do this just by copying it in the Finder and selecting "New from Clipboard" in Preview's file menu), then save it in Photoshop (PSD) format. Now you can open it in Photoshop and get access to the image for editing, including the alpha channel. Once you get that far you may want to check out the nice Photoshop icon tutorial we mentioned back in February.

    [via uneasysilence]
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  • Pacific Catch offers iPhone Calamari special

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    If life deals you lemons, make lemonade. If life deals you an iPhone commercial, make calamari. The Pacific Catch restaurant is celebrating the recent Apple iPhone commercial by offering a Pacific Catch Calamari Special at both its locations. No details are on-offer at the Pacific Catch site, but I'm pretty sure the deal involves tentacles. Next up, I expect surf shops start offering doggy skateboarding lessons.

    Thanks Brian and Andrew

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  • iPhoney: iPhone web simulator

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    Are you busily designing web apps for the iPhone, but are a little nervous because you don't know what they will look like on it (since the iPhone isn't out yet and all)? Marketcircle, makers of the Daylite Productivity Suite, have just the app for you and best of all it is free (and will eventually be open sourced).

    iPhoney is a little app that simulates web browsing on an iPhone. It uses Webkit (though for the best experience I would imagine you should install the Safari 3 beta) and requires OS X 10.4.7. iPhoney lets you rotate websites, as you would be able to do on the iPhone, show and hide the location bar, and even set the user agent to that of the iPhone (I suggest visiting as many Mac websites as possible so they get excited about iPhone visits in their logs). The cool thing about this app is that it is a pixel perfect representation of the iPhone. That is to say that the app will display websites using the exact same number of pixels as will be available on the iPhone's screen.

    And just in case you were wondering, multi-touch is not included.

    Thanks, Adam.
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  • Typinator 2.0 35% off at MacZOT today only

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    It hasn't even been two weeks since Typinator went 2.0, and now it's on a 35%-off sale at MacZOT for $12.99 (regular price: $19.99). This handy typing and snippet manager is a great tool for helping you work faster with text, and a deal this good is both rare and virtually impossible to beat. If you're looking to try before you buy, head over to ergonis software's Typinator product page to snag a demo, but do it quick: MacZOT's sales are one-day-only affairs. When it's gone, it's gone.
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  • Safari brings "colour-managed viewing" to Windows

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    Apparently some design and photo types are psyched about Safari for Windows, because (in the words of Rob Galbraith) it "makes practical the colour-managed viewing of photos within a Windows web browser for the first time." It seems that Safari is the first Windows browser able to "properly [display] pictures with embedded ICC profiles" natively. John Nack at Adobe explains a little about what this means, and includes a nice screenshot comparing Safari to Firefox. This is significant both for ensuring that the photos whose colors you carefully tweaked in Photoshop are displayed properly online, and also for getting good prints from online photo services.

    [via Daring Fireball]
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  • Gadling details the necessities for an iPhone camp out

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    While our latest blogger Chris Ullrich has dug up some details on how AT&T stores are going to handle crowd control on June 29th, Justin Glow at our sister blog Gadling has gone the geek route by laying down a complete list of Must-haves for your iPhone camp out. I really hope things don't get this desperate around the Colorado stores as I hope to score an iPhone in just under 9 days now, anyone obsessed with grabbing Apple's latest gadget might learn a think or two from this list and be able to wake a bit more rested than their competition the morning of the big day. From tents that provide power for charging your gadgets to - no joke - portable toilets, Glow has you covered with what is probably the most over-the-top, über-prepared survival guide for iPhone Day.
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  • WWDC Video: TUAW interview with Brent Simmons

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    Brent Simmons has earned a spot in our docks for years now with NetNewsWire, perhaps the premiere RSS reader on the Mac. But Brent loves developing Mac apps, and he's a big fan of the platform in general. Funny how that works. Mr. Simmons was kind enough to sit and chat with Scott about the WWDC keynote, his competition and some cool new features in NNW3.
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