Thursday, November 1, 2007

The Apple Blog (20 сообщений)

 rss2email.ruНа что подписаться?   |   Управление подпиской 

  RSS  The Apple Blog
The Apple Blog, published by and for the day-to-day Apple user, is a prominent source for news, reviews, walkthroughs, and real life application of all Apple products.
http://theappleblog.com
другие подписчики этой ленты также читают >>

  • Upgraded Laptops

    MacWorld UK is reporting that Apple has quietly released updated MacBook and MacBook Pros. The new versions are available in up to Intel Core 2 Duo 2.6Ghz. The front side bus speed is now 800Mhz, from 667Mhz. MacBooks have an upgraded video card, with up to 144MB of memory shared with the main memory, up from 64MB shared. No formal announcement has been made by Apple (yet), but the new information is on the Apple web site.


    Комментарии к сообщению:
    http://theappleblog.com/2007/11/01/upgraded-laptops/#comments



  • Create a "Sky" and "Wood" Custom Dock

    I learned that the background on the Dock in Leopard is a set of 4 PNG image files, and I got the hamsters running. I made Sky and Wood for you, and here’s what they look like:

    Installation

    showcontents.jpg To ‘install’ them, go to /System/Library/CoreServices/Dock and click on the gear icon in the Finder window.

    Select “Show Package Contents” and then go to Contents/Resources/ and copy these files in. They will replace the system images, so be sure to backup the originals!

    Download Sky
    Download Wood





  • How to Create/Edit Your Own Mail.app Stationery

    Mail Stationery

    One of the new features in Leopard’s Mail is that it includes a few dozen stationery templates for you to easily choose from to jazz up your emails.

    For the most part these templates are just plain ole’ fashioned HTML with a tiny bit of XML. So really the only requirements for editing or creating your own stationery is that you know a small bit of HTML. Some design skills wouldn’t hurt if you’re creating your own from scratch.

    I’m not a huge fan of getting HTML email, but there are times when it’s nice. I decided to dig in to things a bit to figure out just how all of this works and was pleasantly surprised to find that it’s really quite simple.

    Below is a fairly in-depth walkthrough on just how you can create your own Mail stationery or edit the pre-made stationery.
    (more…)





  • Custom Stacks Icons

    Stacks

    Anyone else tired of a Dock’d Applications folder that seems to be a link to Address Book?

    I’m hearing a lot of complaints in various forums and reviews about the icons of stacks in the dock, and not much in the way of solutions, so I thought I’d suggest the one that’s working for me. (There is a bigger post upcoming with a lot of tricks to Leopard, but I wanted to get this one out first, so that at least some people might be happier.)

    The problem is simple: Stacks in the Dock show a pile of icons, with the topmost one being the one most recently accessed, or first in the alphabet, or whatever. This is frustrating a lot of people who have custom icons for the folders in their docks, as instead of the custom icon, the stack icon is a changeable picture, usually of the object that starts with A. Many are grumbling about bad UI design with this, as we are used to the icons that we had representing the folders that were plainly used so much that we thought they deserved a place in the dock. And yes, in my opinion, it is a design flaw. There’s a reason for distinctive icons in the Dock - they’re a mnemonic toy, and a representation of everything under that icon. (I know I’m not alone in thinking that Address Book, which I hardly ever use, is not a good symbol for my applications folder.)

    The simple fix? First, find that icon that you liked so much before. Now, rename it. Try something like “_ Proper Applications Icon” - anything with a non-alphanumeric character should do.folder When you put that icon in the stacked folder, so long as your stack is set to sort by name (command-click on the stack, and choose ‘Sort by’), that icon will stay on the top of the stack. To illustrate my point, to the left is my Dock, after I added a better icon to the Utilities stack, and to the right is a snip of my Applications stack’s grid view after I put an icon in there. There’s still the slight aberration of the other icons sticking out from behind the folder in the Dock, true, but it’s much better than staring at Address Book.

    Icons from David Lanham’s Agua set.


    Комментарии к сообщению:
    http://theappleblog.com/2007/10/30/stacks-icons/#comments



  • A Half-Hearted Jab?

    So Leopard finally launched last Friday at 6pm. It’s great, it’s lame - no matter your stance, it’s here. And in case you were unaware, it’s at least a little better (and dare I say, technically advanced?) than Microsoft’s Vista which hasn’t received the warmest of welcomes since it dropped earlier this year.

    In recent weeks there was an article in the New York Times which essentially got after Apple for not capitalizing on the so-called flop of Vista and the cold-shoudler it’s received from the tech industry. So now that Apple’s latest iteration of OS X (that’s ‘10′, for those new to the game) is on shelves, let the comparisons and true winners and losers be determined. (Or do what I do and just use it because you love it and ignore all the hoopla - your choice of course.)

    But as Microsoft ultimately struggles to regain some respect and dedication to their operating system offering(s), it seems they may be taking the ambiguous shot across the bow if you pay attention. Background: Apparently one night long past - most likely hopped-up on Barq’s with caffeine - I signed up for email updates for Microsoft’s Office for Mac progress. Yeah, I know… Anyway, Friday evening came around, and there was an email in my box with the subject-line, “Exploring Windows: Make 6:00PM Your Time Again.”

    Now maybe it was just dumb luck (I’ll leave that to your judgement), but getting an email from Microsoft on the day of Apple’s OS launch, offering to make 6pm my time again?? May I remind you that 6pm was the launch time of Leopard. It’s very likely it’s just the super-nerd in me that’s reading too much into a chance email, but the timing and wording seemed like too much of a reference to an opposing operating system.

    Did you get this email? What’s your take on it - coincidence, or directed marketing?


    Комментарии к сообщению:
    http://theappleblog.com/2007/10/30/a-half-hearted-jab/#comments



  • Missing emails after installing Leopard?

    This past Friday, after my little FedEx experience, I promptly backed up my hard drive and then did an Erase & Install of Leopard.

    Once Leopard was installed I began moving over necessary files, including my Mail files.

    To get your new version of Mail to recognize your old mail (so you don’t have to recreate all of your accounts), you need to move over the following files and directories:

    • ~/Library/Mail/
    • ~/Library/Mail Downloads/
    • ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist

    I did this and about an hour later realized that when I searched for previous emails I was only getting results from the past 10 days or so and emails that were still sitting in my Inbox before the install were now missing.

    So…how did I fix this? It’s actually really simple.

    Mail.app Rebuild

    After moving your Mail files over, you basically need to force Mail to re-index your mail files. To do this, simply select each mailbox and folder, one at a time, and go to Mailbox > Rebuild in the menu. Depending on the number of emails in those accounts/folders, it could take up to a minute or two to rebuild it. After that all of your previous emails should be accounted for!





  • Mail.app Stationery Pack

    Equinux Stationery Pack In the new Mail.app that is packaged with Leopard, there are a few dozen email templates to spice up what you send out.

    Now you can have over 100 of them to choose from.

    Equinux has released their first stationery pack with over 100 new templates to add to your emailing arsenal.

    There are 7 different categories of templates including Business, Sports, Feelings, and others. It’s somewhat a given that in a collection this large of generic templates, not all of them are going to be great. There are certainly quite a few good ones but along with those are some that were obviously a bit of an afterthought just to reach the “100″ mark.

    The entire collection will cost you around $30.





  • Say goodbye to the transparent menu bar

    Leopard Menu Bar
    One of the biggest complaints made by new Leopard users is the semi-transparent menu bar. Depending on what wallpaper you have set on your monitor, it can get pretty funky up there.

    It was bound to happen sooner or later, but barely 3 days after Leopard’s release we now have a simple app that changes the menu bar to solid white.

    OpaqueMenuBar from Eternal Storms seems to just simply put a white bar over the menu bar. The only negative thing I found was that on dual-monitors it puts the white bar across both monitors instead of just the “master” monitor that has the menu bar.

    OpaqueMenuBar is free for the taking.





  • Holidays in iCal

    Since I switched from Firebird to iCal a little while ago as part of an effort to try this ‘integration’ thing Apple’s been proposing for the last ten years, I’ve been frustrated by one thing.

    …Where are my holidays?

    I always look at iCal - or any calendar - in month view, so one of the big things I use it for is holidays. What week, exactly, does Columbus Day fall in again? I could understand, intellectually, why Apple chose not to put holidays in iCal, given regional differences, but it never ceased to annoy. It got to be too much, so I used my ever-formidable google-fu and found two sites offering calendars to which holiday-needing users could subscribe.

    One of them, unfortunately, seems to have been eaten by Apple’s New Features in Leopard page. “www.apple.com/ical” now redirects there, and I can’t find the old page - which was mostly about new iCal features in Tiger, but also had the links to calendars, including various holidays and sports teams. (Just one more reason for me to like Apple - subscribable Red Sox game times.)

    The other, though, is iCalWorld. They have many more calendars, including user-submitted ones. So add holidays to your iCal, just in time for winter holidays!


    Комментарии к сообщению:
    http://theappleblog.com/2007/10/30/holidays-in-ical/#comments



  • Time Machine isn't perfect

    One of the most highly touted features new to Leopard is Time Machine, the “always on” backup system that takes the effort and guesswork out of backing up important data. But, to the chagrin of many (or at least myself), Time Machine does not backup to AirDisks. I have not personally tried it, but when I was installing Leopard yesterday, I had the option to migrate data from a Time Machine backup stored on an AirDisk. So if Time Machine supports restore from AirDisk, why is backup to AirDisk unsupported?





  • Community Activity: October 29, 2007





  • How to launch an astronomically successful operating system

    Step 1. Announce a device running a version of said operating system with proper modifications for the device’s interface and applications.

    Apple Announces iPhone, Stock Soars. Jan 9 2007
    There have been very few times in Apple’s history where investors bought on the news. When Jobs started to introduce the phone, before calling it a phone, the numbers were climbing. He tells the crowd the iPhone prices $499 for the 4Gb model and $599 for an 8Gb model, making it one of the most expensive devices on the market. But no one seems to care because it is that cool and that revolutionary. Even if you’ve changed your mind now, I know very few people who saw it and thought it was going to fail.

    Step 2. Build up tension through product delay, mention undisclosed secret features, in order to release the iPhone on schedule.
    Apr 12th, Apple made a big statement that day. Jobs was betting that the iPhone was going to be a cash cow and worth the trade off. Marketing and PR went to town and made the bad news good, and I don’t think too many third party developers were upset. It was pretty clear, in my opinion, that the WWDC disks handed out during the conference were a clue that it might get delayed.

    A few months later, the iPhone goes on sale June 28th just before the end of Q3. "We are very pleased to report strong financial results including cash flow from operations exceeding $1.2 billion for the quarter," said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's CFO. "Looking ahead to the fourth fiscal quarter of 2007, we expect revenue of about $5.7 billion and earnings per diluted share of about $.65." I think the growth projections speak for themselves!

    Step 3. Cash in on your hard work for the device and software.
    Oppenheimer Cashes In. July 30
    http://investing.businessweek.com/businessweek/resea…

    Jobs Cashes In. Aug 17
    On Monday, the iconic leader exercised 120,000 that were set to expire this week. Apple gave Jobs the options, which carried a strike price of $5.75 a share, in August 1997 when he rejoined the company’s board as part of his official return the company.
    http://www.macnewsworld.com/story/58895.html

    Apple announces price cuts for iPhone. Sept 5
    http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/05/apple-cuts-iphone-price-to-399/

    Step 4. Slash the price on a successful product 68 days after release and offer early adopters $100 store credit.

    And as we know, Mac OS X Leopard is $129 which means most of you probably held onto your credit to get Leopard for $30. Which for $30 is a steal, making 10.5 the most successful product launch on the planet. With Apple’s market share literally doubled since 10.4’s release combined with market data showing people buying new Macs regardless of the upcoming release, one can deduce that Apple has put themselves on a short time line to make enough copies to meet demand. As one reader said earlier when he asked the Fedex guy, “I’ve got a ton of these things”.





  • Leopard Launch at Apple Store SoHo

    Apple SoHoTonight, my wife and I went over the Apple Store in SoHo to pick up Leopard. It was a dark and rainy night, but the line still extended around the block. The store had crowd control (they looked like bouncers to me) so everyone would line up orderly and around the block. You could only get in one way through the store’s double doors.

    Someone asked me, “Who is in there?” I explained to him that no one was in there and that these people were standing in the rain for an operating system. He scoffed and went on his way. As my wife and I were standing in line, a car pulled up and a woman yelled, “What’s the line for?” Someone from the line politely explained the line is for the Apple Store and we were waiting for the operating system. The woman in car seemed shocked and moved along. Several others asked the same questions, but responded with an knowing “Oh, yeah!” There was a rather communal feel on the line as someone suggested we just tell everyone that John Mayer is in there. It was a very friendly bunch. Additionally, some people from Parallels were handing out mints (or it could have been some nut handing out who-knows-what — this is New York, after all).

    We stood in the rain for a couple of minutes and eventually were let in by security. Several Apple Store employees were lined up handing out Leopard t-shirts. We were then sent upstairs to pick up Leopard. I also wanted a copy of iWork and an Apple Store employee told us to wait in line while he fetched it. The line moved so quickly, that we were next in line before the employee got back with our copy of iWork. We went over the Genius Bar which was a makeshift cashier counter where Apple Geniuses were acting as cashiers. There was a slight hitch in getting my education discount, but everything worked out. Plus, any time out of the rain was rather nice. It took us about 40 minutes to get through the whole excursion; now, I’ll be installing Leopard on my machines at home.





  • Apple tells FedEx to delay shipments of Leopard

    Well this is interesting. I pre-ordered my copy of Leopard the first day it was available to do so. Apple guaranteed shipment on October 26 (today).

    The package was shipped via FedEx Priority Overnight which has a guaranteed delivery time of 10:30AM (unless you live in a remote area…which last time I checked Denver, CO wasn’t a “remote area”).

    I woke up this morning giddy like a 5 year old boy at Christmas to see that my copy of Leopard was on a truck and out for delivery still, according to FedEx, scheduled to be delivered by 10:30AM.

    Well, at about 10:15AM I checked the packaged status and it had the message “Delivery Exception - Future delivery requested.” I certainly didn’t request a “future delivery.”

    So I gave FedEx a call to see who requested it. I had a hunch that Apple might have done it. Sure enough, the support agent confirmed my hunch with the following message:

    This morning Apple made a request to us that FedEx disregard any guaranteed delivery times and instead deliver them end-of-day today as opposed to by 10:30AM.

    Awesome. I must now wait an additional 6-8 hours for my beloved Leopard because Apple doesn’t want people to get their copies before the 6PM launch parties tonight.

    Yes, I am aware that people have been getting their copies as early as Wednesday. No, I don’t really care that much that I’ve got to wait another few hours.

    I do have to say that this seems to be a bit of a sleazy move on Apple’s part, though. It seems, if anything, the people that pre-ordered it should somehow be rewarded for forking over money for something we haven’t really even seen or used yet as opposed to intentionally delaying things.

    Again, I’m being somewhat facetious about this. I just find it to be an interesting move on Apple’s part to micromanage things this far down the line.





  • Apple ticks off 3rd-party developers (as usual)

    I haven’t agreed with a lot of what John Gruber has been posting lately, but I do agree with this point he makes. He points to Steven Frank’s post about not getting access to the Gold Master (final version) release of OS X Leopard before the general public. It’s pretty bad when developers are contemplating pirating your OS just to get their next release out the door on time.

    What’s really annoying is that they give it to Pogue and Mossberg, but not even their key (award-winning) developers. Pogue could be brutally beaten to within an inch of his life by Steve Jobs personally, and Pogue would still sing the praises (he sure drank the iPhone Kool-aid), but Steven Frank is some true talent that Apple could potentially lose (along with many other developers), and it might be hard to win them back. Sure, marketing for your new flagship OS product is important, but if you don’t have any new/updated 3rd-party software to join in the celebration on launch day (or happy developers to keep creating new products for it), what good will it do you? Apple has been known to stab developers in the back before, but if they don’t stop, it will cause them problems in the future.





  • Review: B-Flex 2 USB Speaker

    JLab Audio carries a handful of products centered around audio - iPod Nano speakers, earbuds, iPod/iPhone cases, and USB speakers. I’ve had the opportunity to tinker with the latter of their offerings - the B-Flex 2 Hi-Fi Stereo USB Speaker. Now that’s a bit of a mouthful, so we’ll just call it the B-Flex 2 for our review purposes here.
    maxell blown away
    The B-Flex 2 is small, dual set of speakers (with dual, Hi-Fi drivers) that fit in the palm of your hand. The speakers (housed in a single shell) are mounted on about a 6 inch flexible ‘cord’ with a USB plug at the end. At first glance, the design is slightly odd, and the size of the speakers made me wonder exactly what the point of adding these to my MacBook really was. (Or in Josh’s keen observation, “They’re small speakers for computers with small speakers.” Well said Josh!)
    (more…)





  • Leopard-print T-shirts?

    When Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) arrives on Friday, Apple retail stores will be open extended hours from 6 p.m. until 10 p.m., with live demonstrations and Geniuses on hand to answer your Leopard questions. Also, the first 500 customers at each store will receive a free special edition Leopard T-shirt. But, contrary to the headline, it’s not leopard-print. I hope. (Via Apple.com retail hot news.)


    Комментарии к сообщению:
    http://theappleblog.com/2007/10/24/leopard-print-t-shirts/#comments



  • Candy Bar 3 Features Preview

    CandyBar Some of you may or may not be aware that the founders of Panic Cabel and Steven F, both have their own personal blogs.

    Recently Cabel, while updating us all about the compatibility states of all of Panic’s apps with Leopard, let slip a few of the future features of the upcoming CandyBar 3.

    First the bad news: CandyBar 2, does not and will not launch in Leopard due to a “well designed security system”, however 3.0 is coming . CandyBar 2 will be discontinued after CandyBar 3 is released, which will be Leopard only.

    So what are some of these new features then?

    Well the big one is that 3.0 will allow customization of the Leopard dock. There is no clue as to what extent you can play around, but I would imagine it will be a great way to customize the appearance of your new Leopard desktop.

    Other future features include: support for Leopard’s new, enormous, 512px x 512px icon size and “significantly more robust icon restoration”.

    We can expect 3.0 to be with us before the end of November.





  • iPhone Elite Team release "Revirginizer"

    iPhone

    The “Revirginizer”, a new release from the iPhone Elite Team, will return your unlocked iPhone to its original 1.0.2 state. Therefore allowing the safe upgrade to the 1.1.1 firmware.

    Hopefully this means an end to the phone bricking that has plagued the few who ignored all advice and attempted to upgrade an unlocked iPhone.

    This process is designed to rebuild your lock table in the seczone area and repair the damage done by the original anySIM unlock. In essence, it re-virginizes your phone.

    The software can be found on the team’s Google Code page.





  • Leopard shipping early?

    Leopard Canada Shipping
    A TAB reader in Canada sent us this image of his order status for Leopard. His copy of Leopard was shipping this morning via Purolator Courier’s Express Overnight delivery, which should put Leopard in his hands possibly by tomorrow…a day early than expected.

    Has anyone else noticed if there pre-order of Leopard has shipped?


    Комментарии к сообщению:
    http://theappleblog.com/2007/10/24/leopard-shipping-early/#comments





rss2email.ru       отписаться: http://www.rss2email.ru/unsubscribe.asp?c=6893&u=24004&r=311667163
управлять всей подпиской: http://www.rss2email.ru/manage.asp