Wednesday, January 9, 2008

The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) (10 сообщений)

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  • Apple among InfoWorld's Tech of the Year

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    Infoworld has identified its 2008 Technology of the Year award recipients, and Apple's name shows up twice.

    First, the MacBook Pro gets the nod as their Best Notebook Computer, calling its glossy screen a "revelation" (that might be a little extreme) and praising its performance and build quality.

    But wait, there's more! Mac OS 10.5 was named Best Operating System. We all knew that, of course, but it's nice to see some recognition outside of the faithful.

    Reading this report after watching the videos of old Steve Jobs keynotes makes me marvel at the company's success. Apple was so close to the brink just ten years ago. Here's to a tremendous 2008!
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  • Use Pingie to get Macworld alerts from TUAW on your mobile
    pingie for tuaw macworld 2008Next week is going to be a busy one for the Mac blogosphere and TUAW is no exception. Sure, you can watch our Twitter feed for goings-on (we'll be reporting our location regularly), or subscribe to our Macworld 2008 tag feed, but what about keeping tabs while you jog? Enter Pingie. As Nik explains over on Download Squad, Pingie takes RSS feeds and sends SMS messages whenever something new pops up.

    You can put in pretty much any feed you like, but Dan over at UNEASYsilence was nice enough to create a hot little landing page for TUAW's Macworld feed. Just put your email and phone number in, and you're ready to get updates as we publish them. Please be aware that you're gonna want the unlimited text messaging from whatever carrier you're with-- we don't want iJustine-style bills going to anyone.

    To unsubscribe from the Pinged feed you can text "Ping Stop" to 95495. Let the pinging begin!
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  • Newsgator turns NetNewsWire free for everyone

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    Wow. I don't know who hadn't bought NetNewsWire yet, but if you haven't, consider your wait vindicated: most of Newsgator's products, including NNW, Newsgator Online, and FeedDemon (the Windows version of the popular RSS reader) have all gone free with version 3.1.

    Brent Simmons, NNW's creator, is reportedly happy about the change, to say the least, and Newsgator isn't any less thrilled themselves-- they say that not only are they excited to spread the love around to everyone, but that they'll also be using "attention data" collected from the software (which hopefully sounds more ominous than it is... right?) to "deliver a better experience for everyone." Not so happy might be the folks who've paid for the products in the past-- Newsgator is offering an automatic refund to anyone who purchased them in the past 30 days, but anyone before that just has to live with the fact that they paid $30 to use the software at the time (not that it was a bad deal back then anyway). Those who subscribed to the Newsgator Online service will run out their current subscriptions, and then continue on without charge.

    Version 3.1 of NetNewsWire features an updated interface with new toolbar icons, some performance and memory enhancements, and the ability to archive news items as HTML files, viewable in any browser. It is now available, for a completely free download, over on Newsgator's site.
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  • Beta Beat: Parallels Server beta begins

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    The long history of the Parallels Server release is moving ever closer to an end: SWsoft (which is changing their name to Parallels) has announced that the product has moved into beta. This thing is the holy grail for Mac server administrators, apparently-- it's supposed to not only be the first virtualization solution to run on Apple hardware, but will also allow admins to run multiple versions of Leopard on one box, and even on Windows or Linux servers. I'm pretty clueless at fine art of administering servers, but even I can see how that would have all the IT guys in a tizzy.

    It's still a closed beta at this point, so you've got to sign up if you want to experience the magic for yourself. And apparently the Parallels folks work fast, so odds are we're headed for an open beta within a few weeks. Soon, Mac OS Server will be at the mercy of any IT overseers to bend and use at their will.
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  • Guitar Wizard coming for Mac

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    The guys and gals over at our sister blog Engadget were keeping busy at the recent CES and have turned up some interesting products with a Mac angle. In the video above they're checking out a new music instruction software package called Guitar Wizard which works a lot like the Guitar Hero game (our coverage). The key difference is that Guitar Wizard uses a real guitar and actually teaches you something about playing. The kit consists of the software and a midi pickup which can be attached to your own guitar for $150, or you can get a kit that includes a guitar as well for $300. New songs will be downloadable at 99 cents each.
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  • John Nack updates Adobe 2O7.net controversy

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    Adobe Photoshop product manager & corp-blogger John Nack has posted a followup on the issue of Adobe applications that 'phone home' to a quirky domain name; the official Adobe technote is here. In case you missed it, the commotion arose out of an Uneasy Silence post on 12/26. Dan initially thought that Little Snitch was catching CS3's welcome screen in the act of pinging to his local network, but then a bit of due diligence showed that '192.168.112.2O7.net' was not, in fact, an IP address but rather a domain name owned by Omniture and used for usage tracking (including by the iTunes ministore). Suspicions about the 2O7.net domain go back quite a while, so it's no surprise that frustrated users would raise a stink with Adobe when the tracking connections were discovered; more so in this case because the domain name is plainly constructed to appear, on casual examination, as a private IP address (fooling humans, but not firewalls).

    Nack's post, one of several on the topic, indicates that pretty much any content retrieved from the Adobe.com site (including the Flash file embedded into the CS3 welcome screens) pings back to Omniture's servers for anonymous usage tracking. OK, forewarned is forearmed -- but why the 192.168 goofy domain? Nack's trying to help:

    Q    .: Why does Adobe use a server whose name is so suspicious-looking?
    A    .: I'm afraid the answer is that we don't really know. The fact is that this SWF tracking code already existed on the Macromedia side at the time the companies merged, and it was adopted without change by a number of products for CS3. The people who wrote the code originally did not document why they used that server name, and we can't find anyone who remembers. I'm sorry we aren't able to provide a more solid, definitive explanation.

    Forthrightness appreciated, but what we're left with is the same explanation we had at the beginning (which is the only reasonable one, as far as I can see): the 2O7.net domain name was designed to fool users into thinking the app is accessing the local LAN when it phones home. Omniture has been using 2O7.net since 2000, with varying degrees of public outcry; in this case, at least, the response of customers is encouraging Adobe to stop using the deceptive domain name in future products.

    [via Daring Fireball]
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  • iTunes pricing unified across UK & European stores

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    As Erica previewed earlier, the expected cash register reconciliation between the iTunes UK store and the other European stores is officially in the works, press release below. Interesting to note that Apple is throwing down the gauntlet with the labels on UK vs. Eurozone wholesale music pricing, so that we might see some subtractions from the UK store if the labels don't jump in line.

    LONDON-January 9, 2008-Apple(R) today announced that within six months it will lower the prices it charges for music on its UK iTunes(R) Store to match the already standardised pricing on iTunes across Europe in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and Spain. Apple currently must pay some record labels more to distribute their music in the UK than it pays them to distribute the same music elsewhere in Europe. Apple will reconsider its continuing relationship in the UK with any record label that does not lower its wholesale prices in the UK to the pan-European level within six months.

    "This is an important step towards a pan-European marketplace for music," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "We hope every major record label will take a pan-European view of pricing."

    Full release here.
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  • MacHeist bundle now on sale, includes CoverSutra
    If you've got $50 burning a hole in your Paypal account, maybe some software purchasing is just the thing to quench that flame. As of midnight Tuesday, the Macheist 2 bundle is available for purchase. Although there may be some additional announcements along the way (as there were with the MacUpdate bundle), the apps bundled at the start of sales include:
    The Awaken and CoverSutra packages are exclusive versions for Macheist, so we're told. Whatever the relative merits and drawbacks of the app-bundle approach for the ISVs involved, the value of this bundle to the consumer (even if you already own one or two of the apps) is not really debatable. Note that at least a couple of the apps are 10.5 only, and the list on Macheist is definitive (so if you saw something here or in the comments that's not on the Macheist site -- go with what they're listing).

    Thanks to everyone who sent this in.
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  • Google Buddy brings searching to the menu bar

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    Spotlight is great for searching your computer and networked Macs from the menu bar, but what if you want to search the internet also? Well, here comes Google Buddy, which allows you to search Google using the menu bar. There are multiple ways to search using Google Buddy:
    1. Simple Search - this presents a spotlight-esque menu item that allows you to search for any web page using Google
    2. Advanced Search - this allows you to use the advanced features that Google offers, such as searching using modifiers (all, exactly, any, none) or searching a specific site
    3. Image Search - just as the name hints, it allows you to search Google images
    4. Advanced Video Search - this allows you to search Google Video (however, since Google now owns YouTube, they should have included a YouTube search feature as well)
    5. Advanced News Search - allows you to search Google's News archive
    6. Special Searches - this feature allows you to search for movies, weather, links, and phone numbers
    While using this application, the one disadvantage that I found was the auto-completion. While auto-completion is good, Google Buddy's auto-complete seemed to be "too-fast," so fast in fact that I ended up searching for wrong items. Luckily, there is an option in the preferences to turn this off ("Show search suggestions" check box). This looks like an excellent piece of software for the Mac, and it now has a permanent home in my menu bar! Google Buddy is available from Recurring Dream for the small price of $11.95; there is also a demo available.
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  • Nullriver releases MediaLink for PS3

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    I know many of you out there are Xbox 360 owners who use Nullriver's Connect360 to stream audio and video from your Macs to your 360. Now Nullriver has stepped up to the plate for PS3 owners as well with MediaLink. It basically has the same functionality as Connect360 allowing you to stream audio and video from iTunes as well as pictures from iPhoto directly from your Mac to your PS3. The developer says that it supports non-DRM content in all of the following formats: MP3, WMA, WAV, MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, H.264, AVI, WMV & ASF, DIVX, JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, BMP including high-definition video.

    MediaLink is $20 and a demo is available from Nullriver.

    Update: I've now had a chance to play around a bit with this software and I have to say it seems somewhat buggy, crashing repeatedly on my iMac. That said, when it works it makes streaming a cinch. Nullriver also posted a note on their site that says "AAC support is coming soon."

    [via PS3fanboy]
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