Sunday, January 20, 2008

The Apple Blog (19 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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  • My Experience with Renting a Movie on iTunes

    iTunes Movie Rental We received three inches of snow last Thursday, but I wasn’t worried. We had plenty of white supplies (bread, milk, toilet paper) stocked up, so we didn’t have to venture to the grocery store. NetFlix said two DVDs would be delivered that afternoon. So before dinner, I ventured down to the mailbox to retrieve my treasure, when I learned of the tragedy. I only received one DVD from NetFlix. Gasp! When was the last time the shipping estimate was wrong? I stagger through the swirling wind to my home, comforted in the knowledge that I would soon be laughing at the antics of the gang at Cheers (Season 6, Disc 2).

    That is, until I opened the red envelope and removed the disc from the white envelope. The DVD was split in half. Sigh. Whatever would I do? How could I watch a movie without having to drive down to the local video store? I know, I’ll rent a movie using iTunes! Steve Jobs, you’ve saved the day! In the past I’ve purchased episodes of Survivor that the VCR missed, and watched them by hooking my PowerBook to my VCR through my S-video port. It’s awkward, but it works.

    This article details the problems I encountered with renting movies from the iTunes store, and how I attempted to work around the ridiculous DRM restrictions on rented movies (DRM = Digitally Ruined Media).
    (more…)





  • Reader Feedback: Any suggestions for an app that manages PDF files?

    My collection of books in PDF form has grown exponentially over the past 6 months or so. The flexibility that PDF offers (especially when it comes to search functionality) just overpowers my desire for a physical copy of a book.

    Unfortunately using a myriad of folders to organize all of these books is just getting out of control.

    So, I was curious if anyone has any suggestions for a way to manage all of these PDFs/books? Any organizational method you’ve found that you like? Or many an application that does the trick?





  • NetBoot and the Air
    apple-macbook-air.jpg

    Since I heard that the MacBook Air didn’t come with an onboard optical drive, but did come, instead, with this magic virtual disk feature, I’ve been having a very interesting wonder - does this also mean that NetBoot now works - at least for the Air - over wireless?

    And, fresh off the show floor today hot from MacFixIt, is confirmation that this is in fact true. On these machines, at least, NetBoot will work over a wireless network.

    Before I start talking about the implications of this, some quick background on NetBoot, especially for those who’ve never used this. NetBoot is a nifty little tool that lets you create an image of your boot disc, and then mount it remotely on client machines to install it. This requires four things to work: a Mac running some flavor of OS X Server and three processes - NetBoot, afp, and DHCP, a separate network-compatibly Mac, a network cable, and a bit of patience. (The cable is now evidently superfluous.)

    Drop the install DVD into the Server machine, fire up Image Utility, and create your NetBoot image. (This is cake; like many Apple utilities, it fairly well walks you through using it.) Set up your server to host the image, and you’re done with it. Now go to the client machine. Hold down N during boot to cause the client to look for network images, and you’re good to go.

    Because of the need for Server, and because creating an image and installing it takes longer than simply installing it on the client machine directly, you mostly see multi-machine administrator types doing this. The really nifty thing about NetBoot is, in creating this image, you can customize the settings in your image - and then allow access to this install disk to all the machines you want to use it.

    Network capable machines can also run as normal off these disks; and you can also set your client machines to always preferentially boot from the NetBoot server, so that every time they reboot, they use the same clean image. (This is very useful in the context of large public or semi-public groups of computers - think campus computer labs - where you’d rather users not be meddling with settings.) Each individual copy of Server can manage up to 25 different NetBoot images, so you could even theoretically install specific setups on groups of machines. I’ve also seen it used to install Tiger from DVD’s on non-DV-bearing computers.

    So that’s NetBoot. Provided your NetBoot image host doesn’t go splort - and believe me, if you have machines booting every day over the network, you live in terror of that - it’s a very, very shiny little trick. But back to the MacBook Air, and doing it wirelessly.

    Remote Disc evidently contains a NetBoot server, which is in itself interesting. But even more so is that it can be done wirelessly, which must have involved some major changes to EFI, especially in regards to how EFI handles wireless networks. Scuttlebutt is that this will even work on secured wireless networks. That is really interesting. (Working enterprise Mac support has taught me that if there is one thing you can’t depend on with Intel Macs, it’s their ability to find or connect to a given wireless network, especially an exncrypted one.)

    Smoothing those issues out would help all of us - maybe there’s another EFI update in the works for Intel Macs?


    Комментарии к сообщению:
    http://theappleblog.com/2008/01/18/netboot-and-the-air/#comments



  • Reflections on another Tuesday at Macworld

    This is the fifth year I’ve attended Macworld Expo on the day of the keynote, and it definitely wasn’t as exciting as 2007. But after last year’s introduction of the long-rumored iPhone, how could it be?

    Of course, another big difference is that I didn’t get into the keynote this year. There’s always a disconnect between those who attend the keynote and those who don’t. (more…)





  • Spore for Mac releasing simultaneously with PC version

    Spore for Mac

    Spore, the game of origin, evolution, and life, is now officially slated to released simultaneously with its PC counterpart.

    Spore has had a number of release date delays and its future with the Mac platform was initially uncertain. It being one of the most anticipated games of the decade makes this a huge announcement for Mac users who are interested in the game.

    Used in previous EA Mac games, TransGaming’s Cider Portability Engine will also be used in the Mac version of Spore.

    No word yet on an actual date…just “later this year”.

    Hat tip: TUAW





  • Create Snazzy WebClip Icons

    mobile_safari2.jpgThe iPhone 1.1.3 firmware update added some great stuff, including Safari WebClips. I’ve literally added a dozen or more to my home screen in the last 12 hours or so. But the icons for the clips leave something to be desired. Even though I’ve done my best to zoom in as tightly as I can on any logo on any site (like Flickr for example), it can still be difficult to decipher one icon from the other. And some sites just look bad at 57×57. Of course you could read the names of each icon, but what’s the fun in that? I want nice, clean, simple icons on my home screen to help keep it, well, pretty.

    Thankfully, Apple has given web developers a way to create custom home screen icons. Basically all you have to do is create a custom 57×57 PNG, name it “apple-touch-icon.png”, drop it into the root of your web content on your server, and link to it in the head of your content. The iPhone (or iPod Touch) will automatically add the “glassy” overlay to your icon, and pop will pop up when someone adds your site to their home screen.

    You can check it out more in depth on the iPhone Dev Center (look at “Create a WebClip Bookmark Icon”) or Dan Dickinson’s site. A little thanks goes to Daring Fireball for the initial point to Dan’s site.

    Check ‘em out and help keep our home screens looking sexy!

    Update: Some folks are reporting that icons sized to 57×57 are looking “blurry” on the home screen. It seems that 60×60 is working the best for everyone, though your results may vary.





  • MacSweeper: Keep This Rogue Mac Application In The Broom Closet

    F-Secure is reporting on the first, widespread rogue Mac application that comes in the guise of security software: MacSweeper. It is hosted at www.macsweeper.com, but I do not recommend visiting that site. I’m not convinced this is the first rogue Mac application ever to hit the internets, but the F-Secure folks are top-notch researchers who keep better tabs on such minutiae than I.

    The software purports to be an Ad Aware-type application (that’s a Windows product) and manages to always find a problem on each scan. Freeing your system from those evil discoveries will cost you, though, and the software is almost impossible to remove. While long-time OS X users will probably not be enticed to run such software (since they “know Macs are so secure”…right), recent Windows converts are used to having to run these types of programs on almost a daily basis and are much more likely to fall prey to this attack vector.

    Perhaps the saddest part of this discovery is what the F-Secure researcher heard when talking with a journalist:

    “I visited the macsweeper.com website. I know I probably shouldn’t have but I used a Windows PC so I knew I wouldn’t get infected.”

    Ouch.

    Remember to always double-check the reputation of a company and a piece of software before downloading/installing and make sure you are running with some type of anti-virus program since we can expect more reports of these types of rogue Mac applications as the year progresses.





  • iPhone 1.1.3 Update First Impressions

    Apple posted the 1.1.3 iPhone update shortly after the keynote (as promised) and I managed to slowly grab it via AT&T’s 3G ExpressCard (~161MB…full firmware load). The upgrade behaves like a standard iPhone firmware update and upon restart, you are greeted with a dialog explaining how to move icons around.

    NOTE: This is the first time I have ever seen a company use the term “wiggle” in official documentation or dialogs, but Apple clearly states that to move icons, you press and hold till they “wiggle”, after which you can then happily re-arrange to your heart’s content.

    It’s a bit like playing one of those games where you need to put numbered squares in the right order (I see a game coming once the API is official). It is very nice being able to put things where *you* want them and it would be even nicer if you had the ability to delete - not just move - some of the default apps/icons (I never use the YouTube one). The addition of multiple screens shows (to me at least) that Apple is serious about the upcoming API since you would not need the extra real estate just for Safari links. You can even move the four standard icons - Phone, Mail, Safari, iPod - at the bottom of the main display (the horrible, built-in Mail has been relegated to screen number four, along with YouTube)!

    Google Maps

    Google Maps has had very clean visual update and the keynote video no doubt shows off the features very well (I haven’t seen it yet). The cryptic direction/location search icon has been replaced with more intelligent named buttons at the bottom. If you’re lost, just press the locator icon in the lower-left corner and you get an approximation of where you are. AT&T/Google seemed to know I was within the city proper [Seattle] but that was about it. I’ll test it in other areas and provide updates if it seems to be any more accurate somewhere else in the greater Seattle area. If you want to toggle the visual display features (traffic, satellite view, etc) just hit the eye button in the lower-right. Apple has added a very slick, semi-transparent page-curl visual candy that really works well for this feature, although I can see it getting very old if it is callable from the API, since many developers will be tempted to use it [incorrectly].

    Safari

    Mobile Safari has a new “+” icon on the bottom toolbar and you use it to either make a bookmark, mail a link to someone or add the current page/viewport to your home screen. This option has made it very easy to add “application” icons for hosted Google Mail (their recent update is slick), Google Reader, mobile Twitter and Meebo. If you already have a URL open in a Mobile Safari “tab”, the home screen icon will switch you to it instead of creating a new one (nice). The bookmark icon used to be near the location text field and a search icon has replaced it which takes you directly to the search text field. Again, very subtle-yet-welcome change.

    SMS Messaging

    While I do not have much need to send SMS messages to multiple recipients, that feature seems to work as advertised (I annoyed a few folks just to test it). It will be interesting to see if the recently developed iPhone SMS backup applications account for what is probably a change in the underlying schema.

    While I would have liked Mobile iChat, an early API release and some other wish-list features, this 1.1.3 upgrade adds some very nice capabilities, tweaks some visual elements in the right way and sets the stage for the February API release. While I haven’t trolled the iPhone hack blogs yet, I’m sure we’ll be seeing the reports confirming that this does, in fact, cause some consternation in that group.

    The Google Mail folks are reporting on enhancements to IMAP mail integration with Mobile Mail and GMail. I’ll take a look at that once I get on Wi-Fi. It may be worth switching back to Mobile Mail, but the Mobile Safari interface is way too feature rich to toss aside. Similarly, I’ll take a look at the new lyrics feature of the iPod portion of the iPhone once I get back to my full music library.

    If you’ve found any additional features I’ve missed, have some suggestions for good Mobile Safari home screen additions or want to sound off on your 1.1.3 update experience, definitely drop a note in the comments.





  • MacBook 13-inch Toffee leather sleeve

    Toffee Leather Slipcover I recently got the red leather sleeve for the 13″ MacBook from Toffee. Toffee is an Australian company whom I hadn’t heard of until I saw this product. They make a whole array of sleeves like this one, even for the larger MacBook Pro.

    Material/Build quality

    There’s only so much you can say about leather - it’s a great material, and obviously has a level of class to it (and adds to the price). If you love the luxurious “feel” to leather (though it’s hard to describe), then you’ll love this case. It has the “rough” texture in the leather, and feels very thick and durable, like a very strong piece of material.

    The “toffee” name is embossed into the back, bottom left corner of the case. The inside stitches with white thread hold the entire thing together, and seem to be fairly strong. Now, I don’t know much about fabrics or sewing, but it seems to be built like the Jansport backpack that I’ve had since my high school days. We’re talking a good 8 years. I’d imagine, under fair day-to-day gentle use, this case will outlast the MacBook it’s meant for.

    Protection

    The durable leather feels thick enough, and from my light tests, seems that it could hold up to what I would imagine would be normal use. For instance, I stick my MacBook Pro into an Incase slipcover, which then goes into a bag with the power supply and a whole array of pens, pencils, and other things which could be pointy enough to damage the case. The Incase slipcover, however, allows for sharp objects to cause damage to the computer - I have a couple dings on my MacBook Pro to attest to that fact. However, it’s good at softening minor bumps, drops, and blunt hits.

    The Toffee leather slipcover is the other way around, it seems. My mechanical pencil wouldn’t be able to affect the computer (although the MacBook’s plastic is also better at avoiding that damage). However, the inside of the case isn’t as soft and “spongy” - which means it may not protect the computer from those bumps and bruises. This is just my guess… what, you thought I was going to test this theory out on my perfectly working computer?

    Where to buy

    I found my way over to the Apple Store on Michigan Avenue here in Chicago, but they only had the Incase and a couple other versions in stock - not the Toffee.

    Fortunately, you can find them on Toffee’s site. I got the red one for the MacBook, but they have numerous colors - even for the old iBook and Powerbook models. Not-so-fortunately, the price is a bit more than I’d like - $85. Now, this is a leather case, so the price makes sense. The 17″ cover costs $7 more.

    If you like the leather look (it’s pretty stylish), then the Toffee leather slipcovers will be a great fit for you. If you’re looking something cheaper, one of the other neoprene cases out there would probably be better, and are quite a bit cheaper.





  • VMware Virtualizing No-hack Leopard Server

    The guys at VMware are supremely dedicated to bringing the best support for Virtualization that they can to the Apple platform. I’ve played with both Parallels and Fusion and the choice of the latter was an easy one for me. But the one sticking point tends to be Apple’s licensing of their operating system: They don’t like it running on non-Apple hardware.

    But a change in licensing for the Server version of OS X has opened the door for virtualization. VMware is kicking it at Macworld San Francisco as I type this, and demoing their newly installed virtual machine, running OS X 10.5 Server all day long. They’re certain to clear that this is no hacked version of our beloved operating system, but a straight install from an Apple-licensed DVD, running within VMware’s Fusion Virtualization software. And Fusion supports 64 bit operating systems too, so Leopard Server is purring in all its glory.

    This is big news, as it effectively enables users to run multiple instances of Leopard Server on a single machine. For Mac-based businesses, the environmental savings of this alone are huge! (Think, reduced power requirements and reduced cooling costs, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.)

    If you’re at the Expo, check out the VMware booth and all the cool stuff they’ve got going on.





  • MacBook Air: The World's Thinnest Notebook

    MacBook Air

    The rumors were true. Today Apple released the MacBook Air, “The World’s Thinnest Notebook”.

    The competition specs in the “thin notebook” world are around 3 pounds, 1 inch thick, miniature keyboards, and slow processors.

    The new MacBook Air is 0.16″ to 0.76″ at its thickest part and has a 13.3″ widescreen display.

    A few features:

    • LED backlit display
    • Built-in iSight
    • Ambient light sensor for keyboard
    • Multi-touch trackpad - Move a window by double-tap and move. Rotate a photo by pivoting your index finger around your thumb
    • 80GB drive as standard, 64GB SSD as an option
    • 1.6 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo as standard, 1.8 GHz as an upgrade
    • 45w MagSafe
    • 1 USB 2.0 port
    • Micro-DVI
    • 802.11n and Bluetooth 2.1/EDR
    • 5 hour battery life
    • 2GB memory as standard

    The processor on this thing is unreal. Intel shrunk the Core 2 Duo by 60%. It’s the thickness of a nickel and the width of a dime.

    Something worth noting here is that the MacBook Air does not have an optical drive. Jobs says we’re moving towards an age of not needing one. You can get movies via iTunes purchase or rental, use Time Capsule for backups, and install things from CD/DVD via their new “Remote Disc” feature that lets you “borrow” the drive from a nearby machine.

    Base price for the MacBook Air is $1799. They are taking pre-orders today and it will be shipping in two weeks.





  • AppleTV - Take 2

    Today Apple released it’s second version of it’s AppleTV product.

    To go along with the new iTunes movie rental service, Apple’s new version of the AppleTV has had a nice update.

    A quick feature rundown:

    • No computer required
    • Rent movies directly from the AppleTV (HD movies for $3.99; $4.99 for new releases)
    • DVD quality and HD quality + Dolby 5.1
    • Buy music directly from AppleTV
    • Browse podcasts (audio and video)
    • Browse photos from Flickr and .Mac
    • Sync with iTunes
    • Preview movies and see what other users have rented
    • Run photo screensavers pulled from .Mac web galleries

    There has also been minor price drop from $299 to $229.

    All of these features will be available as a free software update in about 2 weeks. Good news is that you don’t need to purchase a new AppleTV to get all of the new stuff!


    Комментарии к сообщению:
    http://theappleblog.com/2008/01/15/appletv-take-2/#comments



  • iTunes Movie Rentals Available Today

    The much rumored iTunes Movie Rental service is indeed becoming a reality…today!

    Today Steve Jobs announced that every major studio is on board: Touchstone, Miramax, MGM, Lionsgate, Newline, Fox, WB, Disney, Paramount, Universal, and Sony.

    Initially there will be over 1000 movies and in general movie rentals will be available 30 days after DVD release.

    It will cost $2.99 for “library titles” (movies that are not new releases) and $3.99 for new releases. HD rentals will be $3.99 for library titles and $4.99 for new releases (only 100 titles available today in HD). You will have 30 days to start watching the movie after purchase and 24 hours to finish it once you have started.

    Movies can be viewed on Mac or PC as well as on all current iPods and the iPhone. Movies will be streaming…meaning you don’t have to wait and download the full movie…you can begin watching instantly.

    Available today in the US. Available internationally later this year.





  • iPhone Software Updates Today

    Today during the Macworld 2008 keynote, Jobs announced quite a few new pieces of software for the iPhone.

    • Maps with wi-fi locations
    • Webclips - Lets you bookmark pages (and their zoom/pan state) and save them to your main screen
    • Customizable home screen
    • SMS to multiple people
    • Lyrics support (for iPod mode)

    These software updates will be available today as a free upgrade.





  • First release of the day: Time Capsule

    Macworld 2008’s keynote is currently underway and the first new product out of the gates is Time Capsule.

    Time Capsule seems to be Apple’s answer to wirelessly backing up your data with Time Machine. Time Capsule is an Airport Extreme base station with a “server grade” internal hard drive. It looks pretty much identical to the Airport Extreme Apple currently offers.

    There will be 2 versions available: 500 GB version at $299 and 1 TB at $499.





  • Apple Store Down, New Products Inevitable

    Apple Store Down

    The “sticky note of good things to come” is now up at the Apple store.

    Generally Apple puts this image up in the hours preceding major product additions. Doing so gives them time to make product page additions and adjustments. It also generally marks the beginning of unrelenting Apple fanboyism and speculation on what exactly they could be adding to their store.

    Patience young grasshoppers.





  • Macworld 2008 Keynote Today

    Today marks one of the most anticipated days of every year. At 9AM CST, Steve Jobs will give his annual Macworld keynote where he’ll talk about Apple’s accomplishments for the past year as well as plans for the upcoming year. But more importantly, he’ll be announcing new products.

    Macworld is an event that causes more speculation than probably any other even Apple participates in.

    The two biggest rumors revolve around the possibility that Apple will begin offering movie rentals via iTunes and the possibility of a new ultra-thin MacBook.

    The movie rental rumor is probably one of the only rumors in the past years that seems almost a shoe-in for happening. Many major film studios have reportedly confirmed their involvement with Apple on a rental service and on top of that…it just makes sense.

    The ultra-thing MacBook rumor, however, is a bit more speculation. Supposedly this ultra-thin laptop will supposedly be almost completely cable-free (supported by Apple’s “There’s something in the air. banner).

    I’m just not so sure Apple would release something like this. I do think Apple could release something like a 12″ MacBook (a size that’s currently missing from their lineup), but just releasing a thinner version something in their lineup just doesn’t add up for me. I don’t think the average consumer is really ready for something that “doesn’t use any cables”. The idea just feels a bit too gimmicky to me.

    What do you think Apple’s “There’s something in the air.” banner means?





  • Live Chat The Stevenote

    While we here at The Apple Blog will be offering our 2 cents (not that you asked…) on tomorrow’s announcements during and following the Macworld Expo Keynote, you may be looking for the straight dirt as it drops. Well whether you’re at a computer, or sporting your iPhone (ok, or any other mobile with a browser) you’ll probably want to check out WebChattr’s coverage from the floor. Our boy Chris Holland has some cool mojo going on to bring the details to the masses in a format that will allow near instant updates in a web-based chat application - WebChattr!

    Check out his page explaining the whole thing here. It sounds like an interesting solution, and more interactive than the typical, ’stare at a blog waiting for it to update every 60 seconds’. Happy Stevenote Eve everyone!





  • There's something in the air…

    There

    Today, Apple updated their home page with the graphic above showing what appears to be Apple’s main slogan for Macworld 2008.

    Many readers are predicting that “air” is the name of a new line of MacBooks from Apple that will be released tomorrow. Other’s are guessing it has something to do with wireless networking or WiFi. I’m guessing no one really has a clue.

    Tomorrow at 9am PST, Steve Jobs will deliver his infamous keynote speech and is sure to release and announce things that will make your head explode.

    Tune in tomorrow for commentary and updates on new announcements related to all things Macworld.







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