Monday, September 17, 2007

The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) (8 сообщений)

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  • Apple looks out for my best interests

    Filed under: ,

    Today, Apple released iTunes 7.4.2. Apple kindly fixed that small problem where people inadvertently installed custom ringtones on their systems. Thank you, Apple.

    In related news, Apple momentarily blocked accidental Linux use. But then, as with the newt from Monty Python, Linux got better.

    Apple also looks out for iPod Touch users. Its new firmware transfer scheme protects users from themselves. You won't accidentally install custom software on the iTouch or access the underlying OS, at least for some time to come. Unfortunately, Apple forgot to protect the public Media partition from read/write access so tools such as Ecamm's iPhoneDrive still work with both the iPhone and iTouch. For now.

    Will the iPhone remain so dangerously open? Probably not for long. I give it until the next firmware update. I'll be delighted to be proved wrong.

    So where does that leave you? Do you want to tread those dangerous waters and not be protected from yourself? Right now, the realm of social networking seems strongest: Call and write Apple and let them know what you think. Ask them for a public SDK. Ask them to open the iTouch and keep the iPhone open. Otherwise? Welcome to the padded walls and your shiny white straightjacket.

    Update: Just to clarify: SendSong still works. All my custom ringtones are gone from iTunes. Renaming to m4r and using Cleverboy's metadata hack did not work. iToner should still work as well as any other solution that writes directly to the iPhone without going through iTunes.

    Update 2: I totally forgot about the new authentication chips for video. Thanks everyone who reminded me.

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  • iTunes update: 7.4.2 is out
    You hardly have a moment to catch your breath here on the iTunes update desk (cue teletype sound effects); 7.4.2 has just arrived in the hopper. What's new? Well, believe it or not, bug fixes -- and a fix for issues when creating ringtones from iTunes Plus (EMI, high-quality DRMless) tracks. Note this warning from reader Patrick: "Download a copy of 7.4.1 while you still can from Apple! This update even deletes your old ringtones." YMMV.

    The update weighs in at 38 MB, grab it from Software Update or from here.

    Thanks to Mentalsticks, Patrick & Eric for the heads-up.
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  • Secure your Mac: Crouching user, hidden folder

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    Here are a few very simple steps you can take to enhance your Mac's security - not exactly the U.S. Government's Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) algorithm, but enough to thwart many end-users.

    Create a guest user account

    Occasionally, someone will ask me, "May I quickly check my email on your computer? Just real quick..." (often these are Windows users who need an excuse to play with the MacBook Pro). "Sure," I say, but before I hand over the reigns, I switch to my guest user account. Here's how you can create one.
    1. Click System Preferences, then Accounts
    2. Click the small "+" icon at the bottom of the window
    3. In the sheet that appears, set up your guest account. I got fancy and named mine "guest," with a password of "guestpw," but you can choose whatever you like.
    4. De-select "Allow user to administer this computer."
    Now, when someone "borrows" my computer to check their mail, they see an empty home folder, blank email client...the works. Even the rude ones who try to quickly peek won't find anything.

    Create a hidden folder

    Mac OS X automatically hides a folder that begins with a period. We can use this to our advantage and create a secret folder. However, it's not as easy as creating a folder in the Finder and naming it ".MyPrivateStuff." But it's not difficult, either.
    1. Open Terminal. By default, you're in your Home directory
    2. Create a new folder with a "." as the first character using the "mkdir" command, like this: mkdir .MyPrivateStuff
    3. Hit return. You're done!
    So how do you access that folder from the Finder? Navigate to your Home folder (open a new window and click the little house in the left sidebar). Now, select "Go to folder..." from the menu bar. Enter the name of the folder you created, including the period (in my case, .MyPrivateStuff). Presto! Your hidden folder appears in the Finder window. Now populate it with your "secret" stuff (financial in nature, of course).

    One caveat: The Finder "remembers" the last folder you visited with this method, so be sure to "Go to..." a benign folder before you walk away.

    Combine the two tips

    If you really want to get fancy, combine the two tips: Create a new user account that does nothing but store your secret folder(s).

    Again, this isn't military-grade security, but simple techniques that you can use as an extra layer of protection for some of your stuff. Good luck.
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  • Run Widgets (kinda) on your iPhone

    Filed under: , ,

    I've kinda sorta almost have Macintosh Dashboard widgets running on the iPhone. Some run okay, others not so much. The Weather, ESPN and Calendar widgets are some of the best; the Flight Tracker, Dictionary and Phone Book are among the worst. If you'd like to give this a try, download a copy of Widgets.app with the following understanding:

    1. Widgets uses the XLaunch icon and splash screen and the Unknown icon is the wrong size. Sorry about that.
    2. You must install System/Library/WidgetResources from your Mac onto the iPhone. Same folder, same name, same contents. Most Widgets will not run properly without these support files.
    3. Install your widgets into /var/root/Library/Widgets on the iPhone. Widgets.app runs plain old ordinary OS X widgets. You must copy over the entire file structure, so scp -r YourWidget.wdgt root@youriphoneip:/var/root/Library/Widgets is going to be your best bet. And yes, you need to create the Widgets folder if it does not yet exist.
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  • New iPod classic has "badly engineered" audio circuitry?

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    Continuing our theme today of possible problems with the new iPods, now it's the classic's turn. Personally, I doubt could hear the difference but there seems to be a number of people who think the new 6G iPod classic sounds noticeably worse than the 5.5G iPod that it replaced. In the words of Marc Heijligers the new iPod classic "sounds precise, crisp, but lacks 3D image and has an electronic haze to the sound... [which] becomes fatiguing after a while. The 5G sounds less precise, but its timbre contains more harmonic information and sounds less electronic." To back up these "golden ear" impressions Marc ran a bunch of tests comparing the 5.5G iPod and the new classic and has posted his results. His conclusion is that the 6G iPod Classic displays:
    • A slight uplift in treble.
    • A group delay that depends on frequency.
    • A strong modulation with 22.1k, causing intermodulation distortion.
    Apparently the cause of this change is Apple's switching from a Wolfson (5.5G) to a Cirrus Logic audio codec chip. As I said before, you'd probably need golden ears (and good cans) to hear the differences, but if you do you may want to give the 6G a good listen before replacing a 5.5G iPod with a new classic.

    [via Infinite Loop]
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  • iPod touch dark screen problems

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    There are increasing reports out there about problems with the screens on the new iPod touch. Apparently many folks (including here on TUAW) are complaining that the screen is very dark and lacking in details. Above you can see a comparison on Apple Touch comparing the iPhone to the iPod touch (right). Over at the Apple Discussion boards a third-party LCD engineer weighs in with a possible answer: bad quality control in manufacturing led to an error with the anti-reflective coating. If this is right, he suggests the problem might be fixed at the factory in the near future. The upshot is simply that it may be worth waiting a bit if you want an iPod touch to see what Apple is going to do.

    [via Digg]
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  • iTouch Jailbreak Update: Still Not There

    Filed under: ,

    For those of you keeping track of the iTouch Jailbreak, here's a quick progress report. After I modified iPhuc to send arbitrary commands to the iTouch in recovery mode, the team has gotten as far as sending the StartRestore command (that's a third command on top of Goodbye and QueryType.) .If you'd like to try this out yourself, download a copy of iPhuc from the Google Code repository and use the following modified files: Restore, Recovery, and Main.

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  • Reminder: Talkcast tonight -- iPhone unlock and more

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    Don't forget, you can join us online and live tonight, 9 pm Eastern Time, for a half-hour chat with the TUAW team. Mat Lu and I will be doing an extended iPhone/iPod touch development Q&A with Erica Sadun, who has been in a whirlwind of hackery as the iPod touch meets the agile minds of the iPhone Dev Team. Bring those toolchain questions and application requests.

    For those of you who haven't registered with Talkshoe yet, good news; the conferencing system has been opened up to allow anonymous call-in for anyone with a phone, no PIN needed (if you want to participate in the simultaneous text chat, a PIN and the new Talkshoe client are still required). To call in without a PIN, just dial the general number (724-444-7444), enter the Talkcast ID (45077), and then enter 1#. You can also listen to the live stream directly from the Talkshoe site, or subscribe to the podcast to catch up after the fact.

    UPDATE: By "tonight" we mean "Sunday, September 16, 2007" so if you're calling on any day otherwise... Well, that isn't right.
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