Friday, September 14, 2007

The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) (11 сообщений)

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  • High quality album art (from Apple)

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    With Apple emphasizing Cover Flow more and more in the new iPods, etc., the need for good quality album art is ever increasing. I know iTunes is supposed to grab art for songs that are in your library and the iTunes Store, but in my experience it hasn't worked that well.

    Fortunately, Josh Powell has cooked up a nice little site called Josh's iTunes Album Art Grabber that lets you search the iTunes album art repository and download high quality jpgs from Apple's servers. In my brief test (with Springsteen albums), most of the cover art came back as 600 x 600px. However, some albums featured art up to 1425 x 1425 or higher.

    The search engine is rather strict ("White Stripes" returned nothing, it had to be "The White Stripes"), but this looks like an excellent resource for filling in holes in your collection.

    [via Digg]
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  • Liveblogging the iPod Touch

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    Well, it's here. And here's all the dish on my first hours with the iPod Touch.

    Impressions

    Feel. Man, this thing definitely has a completely different feel and weight from the iPhone. It feels way way thinner.

    Squeeze Control. It seems to be confirmed that the iPhone headset squeeze control does not work with the touch. I'll test when I have time.

    Didn't work the first time. A lot of people are reporting flaky iTouch behavior. The first time I connected my new iTouch to iTunes, this was the error I got. Removing the USB and reconnecting it made it work.

    Calculator. Same as iPhone. Absolutely the most boring accessory ever shipped.

    Keyboard. All the sounds on the Touch are clickier and lighter than on the iPhone. It's a very palpable difference.

    Safari. Works great--once you remember to switch on WiFi. All my Javascript bookmarklets are working fine.

    Hacking

    Join us. I'm chatting over at irc.osx86.hu on #iTouch.

    User Agent. According to the iPhoneWebDev list, the iPhone user agent string is like the iPhone's with iPod instead of iPhone, with 420.1 instaed of 420+ for AppleWebKit and with 3A100a Safari instead of 1C28 Safari: Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML,like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/3A100a Safari/419.3

    Visual Hub. TUAW reader RMS notes that Visual Hub 1.28 adds iPod Touch support.

    Firmware. First up: Firmware. Get the iPod Touch restore files here. I'm downloading mine now.

    iPhoneInterface 0.3.3 works. Not jailbroken and when I try to put files, I get "Problem with AFCFileRefOpen: 7". I can however see the main disk and the iTunes files in the public Media folder, presumably /var/root/Media.

    Firmware again. The firmware images seem really similar to those used for 694-5259-38.dmg on the iPhone.

    Recovery mode. Press & hold power button (that's on the top-left, not the top-right) AND Home button for about 25-seconds. New restore mode screen looks like USB cable pointing to iTunes icon.

    Attempting Jailbreak. I got into recovery mode and am running jailbreak with the original iPhone firmware. Doesn't seem to be working. Confirmed as not working, unfortunately.

    The hunt for the firmware password. There's an ongoing hunt, looking for the key to the encrypted firmware. Running strings on the dmgs did not work for me.

    Leaving Recovery Mode. The iTouch makes it easy to leave recovery mode. Press and hold just the power button for about 5-10 seconds until the iPod powers off. Then tap it again to restart.

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  • MakeiPhoneRingtone hits 1.1, further obsoletes the ringtones racket

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    Rogue Amoeba has already updated their MakeiPhoneRingtone application to 1.1, in order to bring in the Cleverboy hack that was discovered the other day. If you missed it, they also posted a guide on how to turn any audio file into an AAC file with their product Fission (but don't forget that iTunes will also do it for you as well, it just won't cut your file for you). We're still waiting on someone to make a program that turns any file into a ringtone by itself (Rogue Amoeba is talking about adding the functionality straight to Fission), but all the tools are there.

    So Apple's whole ringtone system is completely, totally, and devastatingly broken. Why would anyone possibly pay money for ringtones from iTunes when it's so incredibly easy to make your own? As Gruber said in his great and very thorough commentary, the whole Ringtone racket is just that -- a racket. There's no such thing as a "ringtone" -- a ringtone is exactly the same as a song, in a different context. The idea that studios should charge more for you to choose which 30 seconds of a song you want to listen to is complete bunk.

    And if you think ringtones are a joke (and I do -- I've been rolling my own ever since my first cellphone), just wait until you hear about "ringles". Unbelievable.
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  • Interview with Penny Arcade game dev

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    Gamasutra has a nice interview with Darren Evenson, the lead designer of the Penny Arcade game with the long title that's set to hit Macs at the end of the year.

    The interview's got me more excited than ever about this thing-- apparently Penny Arcade and Hothead studios actually polled people on their site about what their favorite games were, and based on that, they came up with a point-and-click interface (a la the old LucasArts adventure games) combined with an RPG-style battle system (as in Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger, which is one of my favorite games ever). That sounds great!

    As stated before, the game will be available in episodes downloaded from the website, and you'll be able to create a character that you play across the episodes. Sounds really fun-- the end of the year never seemed so far away.

    [ via Inside Mac Games ]
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  • A week with the new iPod Nano

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    Dear TUAW readers, I have a confession. Normally I am not a person who spontaneously buys an iPod . However last Thursday morning was, well, a little different. Upon seeing the new Nanos, Shuffles and iPod Classics on display at an Apple Store I just happened to be passing (convenient, eh?), I was torn. Do I buy a new Nano? Do I need one? Do I want one? Can I even justify purchasing one, given that I have a (RED) 4GB Nano that I love dearly? The answer to all those questions was close enough to 'yes', almost exclusively because I wanted a video-playing iPod. And more importantly, because I had 7 days of travel that would allow the Nano to prove its worth. Well, after a week of video-playing, music listening and more, the jury is in.

    Continue reading A week with the new iPod Nano

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  • iPhone firmware 1.1.1 may break unlocks

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    Mac Rumors is reporting that iPhone 1.1.1 is due soon (duh), and they say that it'll bring an International Keyboard, some extra settings for the Home button, the likely WiFi store update, and an update to the Modem Firmware. As usual, this is a rumor, so don't hold your breath-- this could be coming next week or next month.

    But there is a little twist that Mac Rumors missed. An iPhone hacker birdie tells me that their open source software unlock actually patches the Modem Firmware to do its thing. Which means that if the Modem Firmware gets a significant upgrade, it's very, very likely that it's game over for the current unlocks.

    Now, I'm not sure how iPhoneSIMFree's unlock works-- as far as I know, this might only affect the open source iUnlock app. But while Apple has said they're taking a neutral stance against hackers, AT&T may have pressured them to push back against an unlock. As we've known all along, Apple could choose to update the firmware and break any hacks so far, and with a large upgrade to the Modem Firmware, that could be exactly what they've done.
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  • 1st-gen iPod nano lanyards work with new "fatty" nanos

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    ipod nano lanyardIn case you were wondering, the old lanyards for the 1st-gen iPod nanos work with the current 3rd-gen (aka "fatty" or "video") nanos. Apple moved the dock connection and headphone port away from each other in the 2nd-gen nanos, thus ruining the party for a lot of 3rd-party accessory manufacturers. But now all is well again, unless you just despise the look and shape of the new nano, of course.

    And before a wiseacre chimes in with "slow news day, huh?" we'll be honest and say, that yes, it IS a slow news day. Apple has an event next week, which generally means a quiet period beforehand. So until someone sends us pictures of Steve Wozniak showing Larry the Cable Guy a magic trick, we're just going to have to deal with a fairly sparse day of posting.

    [thanks to moo for the Woz link and Atariboy for the lanyard tip]
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  • How will you spend your Apple Store credit?

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    Attention, reckless fanboys with no will power or self control early iPhone adopters. You've certainly heard by now that your $100US Apple Store credit is available. Now that you've got it, the question is, what will you do with it? We're guessing that most customers will use the credit towards something that costs more that a hundred bucks (softening the financial blow for Apple - if you could even call it that).

    What's your decision? iPod nano? Slick new keyboard? Maxed out Mac Pro and cinema display? The comments are open.

    While we're on the subject, remember that the deadline for the full $200 claim is 9/19.
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  • Random album flash in iPod Classic

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    While a lot has been said about the iPod Touch, not much has been said about the new old standard, the iPod Classic. Kirk McElhearn has written a pretty scathing review of a feature that I didn't even notice-- that album artwork on the side while you're browsing music. Apparently it's not related to what you're listening to at all (which is what I originally suspected it was): it's completely random.

    Why would this be the case? I thought it was a cool feature to put what you're listening to on the side, so even while you browse through the music, you could have a static reminder of what's playing. But no. Kirk says it's flashy and moving and random-- just like (gasp) a Flash ad. Apparently you can turn it off, and have just a static graphic sit there. But that doesn't explain why anyone thought it was a good idea in the first place.

    To be completely fair to Apple, I haven't actually used the iPod Classic myself yet-- maybe there's some useful function that can come out of showing random, moving art (suggestions for what to listen to next, maybe?). But flash for flash's sake like this seems a weird decision on Apple's part, especially in a device that's supposed to be a Classic iPod.

    [via Tsai]
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  • iPhone Early adopters: Claim your store credit!

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    For all the iPhone buyers who waited in line and eagerly snapped up the first round of phones, who are wondering "How on earth, or rather when on earth, will we be able to claim our $100US store credit?" -- you needn't wonder any longer: you can run over to this page on Apple.com and follow the instructions on how to claim it.

    The site states "Requests for the $100 credit must be submitted by November 30, 2007. You must activate your iPhone with AT&T prior to submitting your claim," meaning folks who circumvented the iTunes AT&T activation process, perhaps to use their iPhone on another network, would appear to be out of luck when it comes to claiming their store credit.

    Update: Commenters point out that if you had your iPhone serviced/replaced, you will need your original serial number to claim your credit. It should be listed on your AppleCare paperwork. Also worthy of note, if you bought your phone between 8/22 and 9/4, you are NOT eligible for the $100 credit... since you are covered under Apple's price protection arrangement, which will refund you the full $200 difference in price, if you place your claim by September 19. You must apply for your $200 refund at the location where you purchased the phone.

    Thanks to everyone who sent this in.

    [Via MacRumors]
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  • iPod Touch (does not) require iTunes account to use

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    If you're planning to run out and grab an iPod Touch from an Apple Store this weekend (they're on sale there now, doncha know), Deep Thought has an important tip before you go. Before you even get chance one to use your new gadget, you'll have to make an iTunes account you won't need one-- see Update below.

    Of course it's not that surprising when you think about it (since you'll need an account for the WiFi store for sure), but an account just to use the iPod Touch? A little strange, no? The Touch might not have a contract like the iPhone, but clearly Apple wants you to check in on the signup form before you get to play with your new iPod.

    Update: Well, maybe not. Our beloved commenters say this is just plain not true. When setting up the Touch, you can apparently skip making the account, and while obviously you need it for the WiFi store, you don't need it to just use the iPod. Thanks, guys!

    Update2: DT has posted a retraction as well. In his defense, as I said in the comments, the original statement that said an account was required came directly from an Apple PDF. Not all of us have the resources or the cash to buy or use one of these things as soon as they're released, but all of us are committed to letting you know about any pitfalls before you spend your hard-earned money on one. If you are planning on buying a Touch, enjoy it, account or not.

    [via MacBytes]
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