Wednesday, November 7, 2007

The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) (11 сообщений)

 rss2email.ruНа что подписаться?   |   Управление подпиской 

The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)  RSS  The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
http://www.tuaw.com
другие подписчики этой ленты также читают >>

  • Grab Clean Leopard Window Shots with CleanGrab

    Filed under: ,


    Ryan Irelan doesn't like the way Leopard grabs window shots. When you press Command-Shift-4/Spacebar, Leopard includes about 50 extra pixels of transparent background around your Windows. This extra space grabs the window's drop shadow along with the window itself. Enter CleanGrab.

    CleanGrab is Ryan's script for grabbing just the window, without the background pixels. He describes the script and offers a download link on his personal weblog. You'll either need to run the script directly or trigger it via a macro program like Quicksilver. The script essentially runs the command-line screencapture software using the -io flags. -i tells screencapture to run interactively. -o tells it to omit the window shadow.

    If you'd rather just use the terminal command-line, issue a screencapture -io command. I've posted about this handy utility a few times at least.

    Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments





  • iMapIdle simulates push email on the iPhone

    Filed under: ,

    The IMAP IDLE protocol allows an IMAP email server to send out notification of new emails to a client. This means its a great way to implement a "push" email system that automatically sends messages out, instead of having to wait for the email client to poll the server (this is what happens, for example, when you set the "Check for new mail" interval in Mail.app). A new application called iMapIdle partially brings this functionality to the iPhone. Basically iMapIdle sits in the background listening for the IDLE commands ("even if you are in sleep/standby mode") and pops up an alert to tell you that email has arrived. You can then use the iPhone's built-in email application actually to get the mail.

    Needless to say, this requires a hacked iPhone, and since it uses more data transfer it may negatively affect battery life (that said, the IDLE protocol is very bandwidth efficient). The other consideration is that not all IMAP servers are set up with the IDLE protocol enabled. Many are, however, and I've used IDLE based push email on my Treo for quite some time via ChatterEmail. Furthermore, iMapIdle has specific support for Gmail. I should note, however, that I have not actually tested this myself.

    iMapIdle is a free download (donations requested).

    [via UNEASYsilence]
    Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments





  • A2DP Bluetooth support confirmed in Leopard

    Filed under: , ,


    I've always found it surprising that Apple did not have support for the A2DP Bluetooth audio profile in Tiger. A2DP is the profile for stereo music, as opposed to the lower quality mono profile for standard phone headsets. It was rumored, but not confirmed by Apple, that Leopard would fill this hole, and now it appears that's exactly what has happened. Ryan at Thoughts Abound has successfully set up Leopard with his Motorola S805 Bluetooth stereo headset to stream music wirelessly from iTunes. Not only that, he notes that "AVRCP is included as well so you can control your music from the controls on your headphones or stereo."

    Unfortunately, A2DP compresses the audio, so it's not exactly a high-fidelity solution. But if you really want to listen to your tunes from your Mac without wires, this is probably the way to go.
    Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments





  • iPhone Coding: Bonjour wrapper simplifies iPhone implementation

    Filed under: ,

    Man, I wish this Bonjour class wrapper had been around a few weeks ago. The CFBonjour Cocoa class simplifies mDNS/Bonjour programming for the iPhone and iPod touch. iPhone developer Ecume pointed me towards this simple class that allows you to publish and subscribe to Bonjour network services with a minimum of programming. He's using this code to write a DropCopy client for iPhone. Hopefully this new step forward will make it a lot easier for more developers to get on the iPhone/Bonjour wagon--the opportunities go far beyond Zune-like file sharing. (Speaking of Zune-like sharing, my new version of SendSong allows you to squirt your music to anyone using SendFile.)

    Thanks to Ecume.

    Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments





  • Widescreen Plugin for Leopard Mail brings 2-line preview

    Filed under: , ,



    A while back we posted about Letterbox, a plugin for Tiger's Mail.app that brought a widescreen format to Mail by moving the preview pane to the right of the subject listing. Letterbox isn't working in Leopard (though the author says he is working on it), but a new plugin for Leopard has been released that not only brings a widescreen 3-pane format to Leopard Mail.app, but also introduces a very useful two-row subject preview similar to Entourage.

    WidescreenMailPlugin is a free download from daneharnett.com (though donations are requested).

    [via Hawk Wings]
    Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments





  • Instant iPhone jailbreak site offers many new features

    Filed under: , , ,

    Sure, firmware release 1.1.2 is just around the corner -- expected to launch along with the European iPhone in just a few days -- but that hasn't stopped the guys at jailbreakme.com from updating their software and enhancing your jailbreaking experience.

    New features include better YouTube compatibility, a progress indicator (so you don't have to sit around and try to guess whether it is working or not), AFC2 service support, and (best of all in my opinion) automatic installation of the libarmfp library. This last bit means that your apps won't open and immediately close after launching. This also means that you don't need to do a separate BSD subsystem installation as a work-around. You probably will want to add BSD anyway--it's a great system enhancement--but you no longer have to for your apps to run right. Please note that you can't use AppSnapp via a HTTP/SOCKS proxy. You won't get the "Install AppSnapp" button on the page if you do. And if you've already jailbroken and need the AFC/libarmfp features? For now, you'll either have to do a complete restore/re-jailbreak or manually follow my afc2 tutorial.

    I asked an AppSnapp team member about the TIFF exploit getting closed by Apple in the 1.1.2 update. He replied that the team has built the new version of AppSnapp so that "once we find another way in, the resulting payload will work with no changes." Good news for anyone who wants a great way to customize their system with minimal headaches! He also expressed hope "that Apple will stop this cat and mouse game and do the right thing come February." TUAW concurs.

    Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments





  • T-minus 2: iPhone UK News Roundup

    Filed under: , , ,

    In the interests of preserving our American readers' sanity (at least until launch day), we're going to condense the U.K.-related iPhone news into a roundup for your reading pleasure.

    Continue reading T-minus 2: iPhone UK News Roundup

    Permalink | Email this | Comments





  • Snatch back wasted disk space from Leopard's jaws

    Filed under: ,

    Youpi Optimizer

    Blogger Christopher Price recently pointed out that Leopard is greedily eating up about 1 GB of disk space by dumping unnecessary language packs onto your computer's hard drive. Christopher makes two interesting points about this.

    First, the language bundles aren't necessary for typing or editing documents in other languages, they're simply there for translating the menus, dialog boxes, etc. of native apps. Second, a custom Leopard install won't help you avoid bundle overload because deselecting these files isn't an option.

    To wrench your precious disk space from the greedy jaws of Leopard, Price recommends deleting them with Youpi Optimizer. I ran the program on my Leopard-ized iMac and was amazed to find that it freed up more than 4 GB of space. My partner ran it on his Tigered MacBook Pro and he recovered around 2 GB.

    Price says he thinks the bundle bloat is a deliberate attempt by Apple to sell more computers with bigger hard drives. I don't necessarily agree with that but it did get me to wondering: What other unneeded files are lurking in our systems that we can delete without affecting performance? Thoughts? Ideas? Bueller?
    Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments





  • Retrospect updated for Leopard

    Filed under: ,

    It was just this past Sunday night, during our weekly talkcast aftershow (you know, the part we can't record and podcast because it's usually borderline libelous or outrageously wrongheaded), that I said "Y'know, I'm a huge Retrospect fan, and I've been using it for more than a decade, but I just don't see them moving quickly on a Leopard upgrade." Mmm... those words... eating them now, and loving every bite -- EMC Insignia has released Retrospect 6.1.138, with a bunch of bug fixes and full support for Mac OS X 10.5.

    The release notes make mention of the fact that Retrospect will not back up Time Machine data (an interesting caveat), but otherwise the venerable SOHO/small enterprise backup tool should be happy and stable on Leopard. If you're running Retrospect on 10.5 or backing up Leopard clients please share your results with the rest of the class.
    Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments





  • Microsoft Office 2004 11.3.9 out for download

    Filed under:

    Got issues with Word quitting unexpectedly when you print a document? Don't be ashamed, it's perfectly normal, happens to everyone once in a while. If your printing potency isn't what it could be, try the new and improved Office 2004 11.3.9 update, now available for download.

    The 2.5 MB update, offered in eight languages, requires Office 11.3.8 before installing. Happy updating!

    Update:     Some confusion in the comments over version numbering; remember that Office applications don't all track as one, so you may well see Excel, Entourage and Word disagreeing on what version they are. I generally refer to the version of the "Microsoft Component Plugin" (/Applications/Microsoft Office 2004/ Office/Microsoft Component Plugin) to see what overall version of the suite is installed. For the record, the picture above is not of an obscure Hebrew logo, as a couple of readers have wondered: those are the icons of Entourage, Word, Powerpoint and Excel respectively.

    Thanks Laurie!
    Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments





  • Longstanding "move files" issue has alarmed Leopard users

    Filed under: ,

    Update: Having tested this on both Leopard and Tiger, I now agree that the Leopard issue is more serious than the Tiger issue. Under Leopard, instead of just a file in progress disappearing, the entire source directory may be lost if a move operation is interrupted -- the only fix seems to be a Terminal 'cp' of the source before the Finder error dialog is cleared. Until we have more details from Apple on the scope of the problem, do not use the Finder to move files -- copy instead.

    The Mac-loving web is abuzz with reports of a problem moving files in the Leopard Finder. If you're saying to yourself, "Moving files? You mean copying files, don't you?" -- nope, actually moving files, done by holding down the Command key while dragging a folder or files from one volume to another. This trick, a lightly-documented holdover from OS 9, can come in handy if you really truly don't want to leave a copy of the files in the original location; perhaps you're intending to delete them anyway, and this is one step instead of two. The inverse trick, forcing a copy instead of a move for intra-volume file drags, is done by holding down the Option key while dragging -- note the presence or absence of the green + icon telling you whether the files will be duplicated in the target or not.

    Anyway, the aforementioned bug in the Finder is this: if for whatever reason your target disk gets disconnected during a file move -- a USB or Firewire cable is yanked, power failure, or a network interruption for a remote server volume -- you're likely to have problems with your moved files. In particular, whichever file was in progress when the connection dropped may disappear from both the source and target folders, never to be seen again. This is understandably upsetting and certainly cause for alarm and fuss, except for one minor point: this isn't a new problem in 10.5. The issue with file corruption or loss during a move goes back at least to Mac OS X 10.3 Panther and quite possibly further. A recommended workaround is simply not to move files; copy them, and then go back and delete the originals if desired.

    What does seem to be compounding the issue for some Leopard users is instability in the SMB networking stack. If remote NAS or fileshare volumes are prone to dropping off mid-transfer, then the issue may be presenting more often than it had in previous systems. Some readers have noted that this is particularly troublesome if you're trying to clear off a drive for backup use -- au revoir, old files, au revoir.

    While we strongly suggest not using the "move files" trick for anything critical, and we'd dearly love to see this issue fixed in the Finder, we also would like to gently remind our readers that everything that goes wrong is not necessarily, automatically, decidedly Leopard-related.

    Thanks to everyone who sent this in.
    Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments







rss2email.ru       отписаться: http://www.rss2email.ru/unsubscribe.asp?c=6894&u=24004&r=484673635
управлять всей подпиской: http://www.rss2email.ru/manage.asp