Monday, December 3, 2007

The Apple Blog (14 сообщений)

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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.
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  • SunTrust and AT&T debut mobile internet banking! But not for iPhone.

    SunTrust AT&T EmailThis can be filed under one of those “it sounded like a good idea at the time” marketing campaigns. I have a few accounts with SunTrust, so when I got this email, I was actually excited that I was going to be able to view my accounts on an optimized website on my iPhone.

    I browsed to http://www.suntrust.com/mobilebanking/ only to find their list of supported devices and there is no iPhone to be found.

    Since they took the time to only blast this email to customers of both SunTrust and AT&T, maybe they should have also restricted it to the customers who only have one of those handsets. And while they’re at it — why not just make a mobile version that is compatible across all mobile devices - why make it device specific?





  • If Apple Won't Build It, The Community Will

    The average Mac user is probably unaware of the smoldering controversy surrounding Apple’s lack of support for Java 6. In fact, I’ll hazard a guess that the average Mac user may not even know or care that Java is installed at all, but continued, first-class support for Sun’s flagship, cross-platform development and run-time environment is critical to the future of OS X — both desktop and server — in many institutions/organizations.

    Not a Straight Path

    The road to Java on OS X has been rocky at best. Eric Burke has created a definitive timeline comparing Sun's Java releases with Apple's Java releases and does an admirable job justifying Apple's release strategy to-date, but the fact remains that Java on OS X has lagged behind its Windows, Linux and Solaris counterparts. It may be prettier and better integrated with the desktop experience, but it has suffered — at times — from performance issues and lack of features that have fostered many heated threads in the Java community.

    It’s About the Developers

    Even with these issues, you can find hundreds of well-maintained Java apps that take advantage of OS X on Apple’s download site, Version Tracker and MacUpdate (as well as other aggregate listing sites). Why? — because Java has a huge developer following, is used as the primary teaching language in a large percentage of schools and (anticipates much feedback in the comments as I write this) is much easier to develop programs in than other languages.

    It’s no secret that Apple has touted Objective-C as the language de rigueur for OS X, and I suspect that part of the reason for the lack of Java 6 support in Leopard is due to the focus on enhancements in Objective-C (including some that make it more Java-like), Xcode and the inclusion of new debugging and performance analysis tools. However, Java 6 has some enhancements of its own, including major performance improvements, GUI toolkit updates and the ability to interface with the same debugging/performance back-end Apple is utilizing. In fact, Java 6 seemed like a no-brainer to be included in Leopard, or at least shortly thereafter. Developers who have been focusing on taking advantage of these latest improvements in the Java platform are more likely to keep focusing their efforts there since they then have the ability to deploy the results of those efforts on multiple platforms (except, of course, Apple’s).

    It’s About the Enterprise

    Lack of Apple-backed support for Java 6 will also slow or halt the adoption of OS X in the enterprise. While PHP and Ruby are all the rage with the Web 2.0 intelligentsia, Java remains the backbone of corporate web application development. If Apple wants to ensure continued adoption of OS X server (and desktop) at businesses they must show a commitment to the full Java roadmap and keep current with platform releases. Any sign of wavering support will kill current adoption and prevent further investment — at least in the short term — in Apple technologies for Java applications.

    It’s About the Community

    The education/research community has been adopting OS X since the early releases and Apple itself showcased scientific development on OS X at the 2007 WWDC. It’s extremely important to ensure that OS X meets the needs of this group of users and yet Apple has not made one of the core components available to them.

    Thankfully, rather than abandon the platform completely, the community — led by Landon Fuller — has done what Apple has failed to and is set to release an open source, independently built version, based on the BSD port of Java 6, in the near future (preview releases are available now). The GUI won’t be as integrated as Apple’s official releases have been and there will be some rough spots as they work out all the kinks, but it’s great to see developers take the initiative and do what Apple will not.

    This work is only possible due to the open source underpinnings of OS X and the hard work of a number of very smart people dedicated to running their applications on Apple technologies. Apple should take heed from this community effort and finalize their Java 6 release as soon as possible, then get to work on adding Java support for the iPhone (one of the easiest ways to enable secure/sandboxed application development/deployment).





  • CandyBar 3 Review

    candybar.png

    No sooner do I write about how I miss CandyBar then lo and behold it appears! CandyBar 3 was released today, available at Panic. It’s $29 for a license, and there’s a free 14 day trial if you want to take it for a spin first. A discount is available to registered users of either Pixadex 2 or CandyBar 2. Leopard only.

    dock-mod.png The new version is slick. Along with the usual icon swapping capabilities, there are two new features in CandyBar 3 - the ability to customize the dock, and direct integration of Pixadex. There are a number of new icon sets released at the IconFactory at the same time, all including dock mods. The dock to the right is from the icon set that comes preloaded, Float. It’s a fairly clean set, although I’m personally really liking the look of the dock in Amora. The understated black and red there is quite nice.

    As a useful touch, the icons and the dock can be changed independently. CandyBar 3 also allows you to change system icons that it previously couldn’t, a nice feature given the number of strangely-bland system icons in Leopard.

    changed.png Another nice feature is what seems to be the integration of QuickLook - a menu accessible by control-clicking on the icon thumbnails shows the ‘IconLook’ view, a comparison of the different sizes from 16×16 to 512×512 in a very QuickLook-like transparent black window. A nicely visible blue halo indicates icons that have changed from the default in the set.

    The biggest benefit, though, is the combination of Pixadex and CandyBar, especially for people (like me) who tend to pick and choose single icons on top of a theme - this integration makes picking an icon as easy as choosing a song in iTunes. One click imports icons loose on your hard drive, although the trial version can only manage 250 loose icons. You can view, change, and use icons from this library as easily as those from iContainers. As before, you can also save your various choices as an iContainer for use later or on other machines.

    Previously, I’d not been a particular fan of CandyBar, preferring the freeware LiteIcon (also recently updated for Leopard, but without dock-mod capabilities) and the not-free ShapeShifter. Still, Panic seems to have used the time before this release to make CandyBar 3 much more than just a compatibility update, with the new features making it an improvement over the solutions I’d tried in the past.


    Комментарии к сообщению:
    http://theappleblog.com/2007/11/27/candybar-3-review/#comments



  • Protecting Your Mac Notebook

    Many of us traveled this weekend for the holiday, and some of us probably brought along our laptops. Unfortunately, the odds are that a few of us dropped our laptop bags, or worse yet, dropped our laptop directly on the ground. For those owning a MacBook or MacBook Pro, the result may not have been pretty. These are beautiful machines, but their cases are rather susceptible to dings and cracks from the occasional bump or drop. Until Apple comes out with a ToughBook competitor, MacBooks should somehow be protected in case of an accident, which could even happen to the most careful computer owner. As an example, my MacBook Pro now has a minor dent on its side because the padded messenger bag holding my laptop took a tumble in Grand Central Station. What are your computer protection options, other than traditional computer bags? Here’s a round up of some other products out there that are designed to protect your Apple laptop.

    Speck SeeThruSpeck makes the SeeThru Hard Shell for both the 15″ and 17″ MacBook Pro, as well as the MacBook. The SeeThru (available for about $50) is a polycarbonate shell that fits over your laptop to protect the casing from getting damaged. The shell comes in 8 different color including clear, red, and black. It has vents on the bottom half so the shell helps keep the laptop cool and has cutouts for the ports on the side of the laptop. Techshell makes a similar product (starting at about $60) except it does not have any vents on the bottom part of the case, so I have to wonder about how well heat is dissipated.

    MacTruckWhen it comes to heavy duty protection, the MacTruck doesn’t look like it plays any games. It is a combination laptop enclosure and briefcase. As an added bonus, the case doubles as an angled stand for when you are ready to use your laptop. The downside to the MacTruck–pretty darn expensive with prices ranging from $199 to $229. To be fair, do you know what it costs to replace your MacBook’s casing? The same as the MacTruck, sometimes plenty more. MacService will replace either the top or bottom of the MacBook Pro casing for $225 each (that’s $450 if both the top and bottom get damaged). DT&T Services will cost $250 for the top casing, $295 for the bottom casing, and $495 to replace both casings. As a lesser expensive option, if you don’t mind looking like a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, you could get a hard shelled backpack over at eBags.com and protect more than just your laptop.

    Again, there is a lot of incentive to taking proactive measures to protect your MacBook or MacBook Pro. Replacing your case can be expensive, not only in terms of dollars, but also in terms of time. You’ll have downtime without your computer if you send it in for repair or you’ll have a new experience while trying to rebuild your laptop from spare parts you found online. Keep in mind, I am only talking about cosmetic damage which is largely not covered by AppleCare. Some of these cases may protect more than your Mac’s pretty case.





  • Your .mov's Flattened

    If you do a lot of work with video files you will eventually want to share them with Windows toting friends, family or colleagues and maybe post them somewhere on the web.

    It can be frustrating when starting out with your Mac to find the Quicktime (QT) files created by many Mac applications are not always easily recognised on other platforms or the web, even when the correct QT plug-in is available. If this happens to you your movies need flattening. No really :).

    QT is a much deeper application than it at first appears but this depth can lead to problems when you go outside the Apple envelope.

    Apple will sell you QT Pro for £20 ($40 plus) which does the job; but what if you only need this facility occasionally and/or you have twenty files to flatten? Quicktime Pro can do only one file at a time out of the box.

    I love small apps that do one job well and Lillipot is a donationware application that does all this very well.

    Lillipot

    Lillipot accepts batch quantities of QT files and 'flattens' them - puts all the possible resources used in the making of the QT file at the beginning - adds 'fast start' - which makes movies viewed over a slower web connection start playing more quickly, and removes any dependancies which may have been introduced if you used the 'Save as a Reference movie' dialog somewhere along the way.

    Lillipot accepts two file types, .mov and .mp4, turning the one into the other and vice versa. That's it.

    Lillipot is simply useful and comes in universal binary flavour.


    Комментарии к сообщению:
    http://theappleblog.com/2007/11/26/your-movs-flattened/#comments



  • Community Activity: November 26, 2007





  • The LG Viewty

    LG Viewty

    This so called “iPhone killer” is probably going to kill itself.

    The Good

    Based on the LG Viewty's microsite alone, the most touted feature is clearly the 5 megapixel camera on its back. It has flash, a manual focus, and an image stabilizer as well. On the front, it features a smaller camera for video conferencing. It's a 3g ready phone so its network should be able to handle decent quality conversations. There's an included speakerphone on the back, the MicroSD supports up to 2 gigs, and its screen is a 3 inch touch display. It also supports DivX playback in both portrait or landscape modes with resolutions up to 640×480. Another solid feature for this phone is its ability for TV out. It's currently on schedule for a Europe release. But don't fret too much, here's why.

    The Bad

    On immediate touch the phone feels light, plasticky and a bit thick (I'm assuming having a 5 megapixel camera stuck to your back adds on a few centimeters). Not having any internal flash probably makes the phone a bit cheaper, but without any expanded memory it will only get you to about 90mb. And only supporting up to 2 gigs, that's not very many DivX if you think about it. I live in the US, so the phone wasn't activated leaving me without the opportunity to test out the voice quality, video conferencing, or the web. No the phone doesn't have WiFi either.

    Booting it up was simple and quick. It has three buttons on the front, call send, clear, call end. On the left side it has a single port for charging (and I'm going to come back to this port), the right side had the lock/unlock button, camera button, and photo view, camera, or video camera selection. Top nothing, Bottom, nothing. Headphone jack? That's where the bad comes into play. The charging port on the left side is a stock LG port featured on other phones such as the LG VX8600 (chocolate flip phone). The phone requires a unique LG adapter which plugs into the charging port to provide a headphone/earphone jack. What's that mean? It means one more thing to carry around AND you can never charge your phone while having headphones plugged in at the same time. Those long road trips will just have to do with alternating between listening, watching and charging.

    The Ugly

    The touch aspect of the phone isn't very sensitive. It requires a bit more force then I expected and it's not always so accurate, but I imagine most touch devices aren't. Scrolling is frustrating because more often then not it will end up selecting an item instead of scrolling. The phone does feature stylus recognition, much easier to navigate with, but slower to type with. By default, messages are set to a numeric keypad similar to most phones and features T9 writing. You can switch to a landscape full QWERTY however. The most frustrating aspect of the device was its UI. I had to click things just to figure out where I was, where I could go, and what I could do. It took me entirely too long to figure out how to landscape my videos. There is no button for it, and it doesn't do it automatically when you turn it sideways. You tap the playing video and it'll switch for you. Similarly when typing with the QWERTY I couldn't find a backspace. Every time I messed up (frequently) I couldn't find a way to go back, or delete. I ended up resorting to highlighting my word with my finger and retyping it slower. I can't express to you how frustrating that is. Fortunately, after two more people gave it a try I learned that hitting the clear button in between the Call Send and Call End works as a backspace. The physical key is off the right as you type in landscape so you can reach it, I just didn't know how I was supposed to figure that out. You'd assume on a digital screen, you'd have a backspace button. There is a button on the screen that looks like one, so don't get confused. That instead is to return you to the previous screen. So accidentally hitting it while typing will ask you if you want to save your message, or delete it.

    This review may be a bit biased but I find it to be reasonably so. If a company is entering a market with a new device, they should have the foresight to innovate. And if the company is entering a market where there's competition, they should heed the practices of others and implement what works.


    Комментарии к сообщению:
    http://theappleblog.com/2007/11/26/the-lg-viewty/#comments



  • UI Customization in Leopard

    As you might have guessed from my past articles here, I tend to heavily customize the appearance of OS X on any machines I use regularly. Looking at my desktop, I see no default icons, my dock isn’t much better, and every time I use someone else’s machine, I’m generally surprised by the candy-colored dots springing out of the top of my windows.

    Then I upgraded to Leopard.

    To my faint surprise, most of my icons were gone. Some, fortunately, stuck around - the sea serpent body parts that I use for drive icons, notably - but others, including the complete replacement of the system icons (David Lanham’s Agua set; see my previous posts for a link) had gone. My utter loathing of the boring, front-on, barely-embossed Leopard default folders began. The candy buttons were back, too. The new install ate ShapeShifter and Samui. As if that weren’t enough, I keep my dock on the left, meaning I’m left out of all the fun of customizing my dock; the dark-glass theme completely overrides any modifications made, even if they show up when the dock is at the bottom of the screen.

    The Leopard-default replacements aren’t particularly good, either, failing usual interface guidelines in terms of color, shape, and aesthetic rules. For example, take the icon for the music folder. On the left, Leopard’s default; on the right, a Tiger-style music folder. Note how the rich green of the music note really makes the purpose of the folder pop. Look, too, at the difference in shape - the off-center cant and the overrun of the default folder shape by the note make the music folder stand out from any other folder. Why, if the point of different icons for different purposes is to make finding what you want easier and quicker, would anyone choose icons that look all the same?

    folder-icons.png

    To my dismay, there doesn’t seem to be any solutions for this. Pixadex’s website doesn’t mention Leopard at all. CandyBar is incompatible with Leopard. So is ClearDock, ShapeShifter, FruitMenu, WindowShade…. all the Unsanity apps, in fact.

    Is the fate of all the customization apps Apple’s way of telling users to leave the UI alone? I certainly hope not. That said, though, does anyone know of any solutions to this, short of changing each and every icon manually? For that matter, what about all the UI elements - the toolbars, the buttons - that can’t be changed through the Get Info pane?





  • iAlarm Wakes Me Up to iTunes

    iAlarmAs far as getting up in the morning goes, there are all sorts of unpleasant ways to make the transition - blaring alarm clocks, AM radio interrupted by static and of course, the barnyard rooster. One more inviting way to start the day is to hear your own music from iTunes, and a shareware application, iAlarm, enables just that.

    When I’m away from home and can’t use my iHome, I always use iAlarm. iAlarm lets me select the time I want to wake up and choose the iTunes playlist to play from. Then by hitting the “Set” button, we’re good to go. (See a screenshot from the developer’s site)

    iAlarm means no fussing with hotel alarm clocks, setting the alarm on your cell phone, or asking for a wake-up call. It even lets my Mac sleep when I’m sleeping, and wakes us both up at the scheduled time. This even furthers the belief that I’m connected to my Mac from when I start up to when I shut down at night.

    Best of all, it only costs $5.75 to order. If you opt not to buy it, iAlarm will pause in an increasing number of seconds before starting. But it’s worth the pocket change for sure.





  • The World Is Your…Desktop

    earthdesk_small
    Click for Larger Image

    What’s on your desktop? Pictures of the kids? Your dream car? Maybe one of the stock images Apple provides with every new system?

    The way someone organizes and presents their desktop can say a lot about a person - whether they are the cluttered, messy type, or someone who likes cleanliness and order, whether they are fanciful or serious. But one utility, EarthDesk, from Xeric Design, takes you beyond what’s right in front of your face, and presents you with the world, on your desktop.

    The program, which installs as a preference pane in your System Preferences, displays the Earth in full, and in near real-time, displays when the sun goes down over one hemisphere and rises in the next. It simulates the lights from the most-densely populated cities, and shows darkness in more sparsely lived-in areas. Also intriguing - real-time cloud patterns and display, taken from NASA, giving you a single birds-eye view of the world and its weather. You can select from a number of display options, including satellite view or political view, equirectangular or globe, and more.

    Even if you’re locked in a cubicle in the office, and can’t see a window, you’ll know the sun is going down as darkness covers your city. If you’re staying up too late, you’ll see the sunrise inevitably creep to the West, threatening to catch up with you. But no matter your task, EarthDesk is rendering real-time imagery in the background, giving you a snapshot of the world, on your Mac. You can download the program from the Apple Web site, or directly from the developer. To purchase the program, it’s $23.95.





  • Apple Spaces Needs Competition

    Spaces Pager TAB
    Leopard (OS X.5) was one of those big releases that while I was excited about it on principle, there weren’t many of the announced features that [on the surface] got me purring. The feature that garnered the most excitement for me was Spaces. I’m a longtime virtual desktop user and have gone through all of the offerings for the Apple platform. So the idea of having the functionality baked-in was an attractive one to me.

    A sad side-effect to the news of Spaces however, was the announcement that a former favorite in this space - Virtue Desktops - would be shutting down further development. The story of Apple taking the best ideas and applications and baking them into the Mother Ship isn’t anything new - but generally the developers of these applications hang in there a bit before throwing in the towel. The most unfortunate part however is that competition is good for the consumer, typically resulting in better quality, more features, and plenty of options to fit any user. I completely understand being busy and not wanting to make time for a side project that would most likely be Apple’s victim, however I do wish the competition against Apple’s Spaces would make a fight out of it.

    I don’t want to rehash all the gripes with Spaces that have accumulated around the internet these past couple of weeks, but let’s just say I agree with basically all of them. Mostly the issues stem from the ridiculous lack of configuration options. But the whole zooming me from one Space to another when I OPT+TAB is gonna send me over the edge one day in the not too distant future. Seriously. Why on earth would I want be bounced back and forth amongst my Spaces each and every time I want to work in a different application? My personal workflow has me using the Virtual Desktop concept as a division for my projects, not my tasks…But I digress. I do get it though - Spaces is meant to bring Virtual Desktops to the masses in a way that they can all get it. Unfortunately that leaves the rest of us starving for more.

    The real shame here is that some great applications have faded into the background as Apple has released their own replacements. So those of us who loved those third party apps are left wanting when Apple’s solution doesn’t cut the mustard. When those great developers forsake their code - and consequently, their users - the spirit of competition and innovation in that particular application space is generally lost…Or at the very least, left up to Apple and their timeline to update. I’m fearful that Spaces is a prime example of this.
    (more…)





  • An Open Letter to Steve about the iPhone SDK

    Dear Steve,

    Your recent announcement of an upcoming iPhone SDK, made under the radar via your Hot News page, was very welcomed by most iPhone users. We can’t wait to have native version of Skype and Instant Messaging clients on our phone, and not put there via Jailbreaking. This really should have been in software developers hands a year ago, but we’ll take it anyway, if a bit late.

    But that’s not what I’m writing to you about today. I’m writing to complain that the most obvious omission in iPhone apps is the fact that we can’t put 3rd widgets on our iPhones. It’s obvious to the most causal user that you already have them running. You can’t tell me the weather “app”, the stock “app”, and probably others aren’t widgets, the same as in the Dashboard, running on the iPhone. When you announced the iPhone, you told us “you won’t need an SDK”. 37Signals proclaimed validation for their ethos, that web apps and AJAX’d apps were the future. And there’s obviously an audience out there for these things (see the Digg and Facebook iPhone versions). But what I imagined was alot closer to a Dashboard widget than a web page running in Safari.

    In fact, there was never a question in my mind that we’d be able to develop iPhone “apps” that would run native, with a cool little icon on the home screen, in HTML and CSS and Javascript. I assumed there’s be special hooks we could put in the html that would activate special iPhone features, and there are (text fields called “phone” or “zip” bring up numeric entry screens), but those seemed half baked also. Why doesn’t a “file” field called “photos” allow us to choose photos stored on the iPhone for uploading (to say, flickr)? And why can’t we explicitly tell a text field to bring up the url, phone/number, or qwerty keyboards?

    So, I beg of you Steve, make this happen. Let us put widgets on our iPhones. Let us have more control over what our html can do. Let us do what we all thought was going to be possible. You already have all of this functionality there, I’m not asking for anything new here, just flip the switch and make it happen.

    Sincerly,

    BJ Clark
    iPhone Addict and Web Developer





  • Community Activity: November 19, 2007





  • A Kindle-r, Uglier iPod For E-books?

    Kindle

    Unless you’ve been enjoying an early start on your Thanksgiving vacation, you couldn’t avoid reading about Amazon’s newest effort to purvey their wares, the Kindle reader. Some are even calling it “Reading 2.0″.

    BusinessWeek threw down the gauntlet with their “Buy Amazon - Kindle is the iPod of books” story today. That is a brazen statement to make and requires a response, though it’s reassuring they admit Apple is still setting the bar.

    What the Kindle is:

    • an e-ink-based e-book reader – similar to the technology in Sony PRS-readers – that can also play mp3 files & audiobooks
    • an EVDO-enabled, portable device from which you can purchase new books, audio files and access to blogs & e-subscrptions to newspapers and periodicals
    • based – in part – on open source code (looks to be a Linux 2.6 kernel with an interesting cadre of libraries)

    What the Kindle is not:

    • a two-way communication device
    • a tool to browse the general Internet
    • a stylish, well-engineered testimony to modern industrial design (despite being 3-years in the making)
    • an open, extensible platform (though I’m sure Sprint & Amazon will have their hands full with hackers, especially with that “free” EV-DO network connection and linux kernel just waiting to be pried open)

    In essence, you’re paying Amazon $400.00USD for the privilege of buying more books and content from Amazon that can – for the most part – only be used on their device. And, while I write-for and enjoy reading TAB, I’m not sure it’s worth a buck a month to be viewed in RSS-feed-form in four whole shades of gray, especially since my monthly subscription fees for all blogs I’d want access to – if Amazon is gracious enough to let me view them – would be more than my AT&T iPhone plan charges.

    How anyone can claim that the Kindle will be to books what the iPod was to audio or the iPhone is to … – well, the iPhone pretty much is in it’s own device class – is beyond me. I can easily load my own content on my iPod/iPhone (and my Sony PRS-500 for that matter). The iPod/iPhone is engineered beautifully and the user-interface is intuitive and well designed. Apple created an entire culture around their i-devices and succeeded – in part – because they hit the consumer market at the lowest common denominator (i.e. folks are far more likely to listen to music or watch videos than they are to read). My iPod and Sony Reader do not require me to have Internet access and my iPhone enables me to view the Internet even without EDGE access (provided I’m near Wi-Fi).

    I’m no Jeff Bezos, and Amazon has innovated far more than I ever will, but I can’t help but believe that they released this device too early and have taken no lessons from those that have gone before. The Kindle will not have the same legacy as the iPod, but will, hopefully, spark further development in the e-book arena.

    For now, the best Christmas present I can receive would be to see the Net’s code-twisters release the Kindle from it’s dysfunctional bondage (and make Sprint wish it never agreed to their partnership).

    Full disclosure: Apart from being an happy iPod/iPhone user, I’m also a very pleased Sony PRS-500 owner.







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